Salisbury, George (1832-97), of Blackburn, factory worker, auctioneer, journalist,
emigrated to US in 1874, editor then proprietor of the Fall River Advance. Ref:
Hull, 159-65.
Samuel, James (b. 1869), of Bathgate, tailor, pub. poems in the West Lothian Courier,
Christian News and elsewhere. Ref: Bisset, 322-27. [S]
Sanderson, James (1788-1891), of Earlston, weaver. Ref: Crocket, 121-7. [S]
Sancho, Ignatius (1729?-1780), African servant turned writer, born on a slave ship
headed for the West Indies, brought by his owner to Greenwich, Englan; butler
for the widowed duchess of Montagu and later her son, then a grocer; some
poems included in his published letters, Letters of the Law Ignatius Sancho, an
African (1782, two vols, by subscription). Ref: ODNB; Basker, 232-3.
Sanderson, Robert (b. 1836), of West Linton, Peeblesshire, land surveyor and weaver,
took violin lessons from Alexander Thom, pub. Poems and songs (Edinburgh,
1865); Frae the Lyne Valley: Poems and Sketches (Paisley, 1888). Ref: Edwards 1, 679; Reilly (2000), 405. [S]
? Sankey, William S. Villiers, Chartist poet. Ref: Kovalev, 76-9.
Satchwell, Benjamin (1732-1810), of Leamington Priors’, Warwickshire, shoemaker;
pub. The Rise and Fall of Troy, and Astronomical Characters and Their Use; both lost
works; ODNB indicates that only two examples of his verse are known to have
survived but does not identify where; online sources and leamington
guidebooks note a monument to Satchwell raised by his daughter, and refer to
‘his rhyming efforts to eulogise both the waters [of Leamington Spa] and the
visitors, as well as by his frequent notices of the same in the provincial
newspapers of the period’ (New Guide to the Royal Leamington Spa, London, 1839,
pp. 18-19, via Google books). Ref: ODNB; Poole, 161-5; various online sources;
nothing on COPAC.
Saunderson, F., ‘A Female Cottager’, author of ‘Spring Reflections’, Northern Star, 19
may 1838. Source/link: wcwp [F]
? Savage, Richard (1697/8-1743), of Holborn, murky childhood and upbringing,
shoemaker, poet and playwright, friend of Samuel Johnson, notoriously claimed
illegitimate aristocratic blood (see ODNB), died in poverty and debt; pub.
Miscellaneous Poems and Translations (1726), A Poem sacred to the glorious memory of
our late Sovereign Lord, King George, etc. (1727), The Bastard, a poem in five cantos
(1728), The Wanderer (1729), Verses occasion’ed by the Viscountess Tyrconnel’s
recovery at Bath (1730), The Volunteer Laureat. A poem (1732), On the departure of the
Prince and Princess of Orange. A Poem (1734), The Progress of a Divine, a satire in
verse (1735), Of Public Spirit in regard to Public works. An epistle in verse... (1737).
Ref: ODNB; Radcliffe.
? Sawyer, Anna (fl. 1794-1801) lived at Rowberrow, Somerset, and also may have
lived in Bristol and Birmingham; background uncertain but suffered an
unspecified, seemingly tragic misfortune associated with her husband (possible
William Sawyer, formerly of Bristol), and described the poems in her volume as
‘the first productions of her unpracticed Muse’; pub. Poems on Various Subjects
(Birmingham, 1801), with subscribers for 700 copies including Hannah More,
Anna Seward, and the Society of Artisans, Birmingham. Ref: Lonsdale, 503-6;
Backscheider & Ingrassia, 885. [F]
? Sayer, W. F., pawnbroker, pub. Spare Moments (Hackney: George Pope, 1953) and
The Pawnbroker’s Warehouse Boy. Ref: John Hart catalogue 17 (2006), no. 180.
Scadlock, James (1775-1818), of Paisley, friend of Tannahill, weaver, bookbinder,
engraver; poems posthumously published. Ref: Brown, I, 96-101; Wilson, I, 5278. [S]
Scarlett, Robert (1820-1887), of Westleton, Suffolk, agricultural labourer, pub.
Poems...dedicated by permission to Miss Sarah Row (Woodbridge, 1841). Ref: Copsey
(2002), 314.
? Scholes, John (?1808-63), of Rochdale, failed hat-manufacturer, later journalist,
contributed to The Festive Wreath (1842). Referred to in Alexander Wilson’s ‘The
Poet’s Corner’ as author of ‘A Touching Scene’ and ‘many poems’. Ref: Harland,
341-2, 404-8; Hollingworth, 154.
Scorgie, John (b. 1852), of Monymusk, Aberdeenshire, rabbit-trapper’s son, cattleherder, stone-dresser, went to US but returned, pub. poems in newspaper and
journals. Ref: Edwards, 5, 321-5. [S]
Scott, Andrew (b. 1821), of Elliott Bridge, near Arbroath, herd laddie, weaver,
merchant. Ref: Edwards, 5, 134-8. [S]
? Scott, Andrew (1757-1839), of Bowden, Roxburghshire, poet and farm labourer,
called ‘shepherd boy’, enlisted and served under Cornwallis in the American
War of Independence, first collection pub. 1805; Poems Chiefly in Scots [the
Scottish] Dialect (Kelso, 1811, Jedbergh, 1821, 3rd edn 1826); published two other
collections in 1821 and 1826. Ref: ODNB; Shanks, 143-6; Douglas, 76-9, 294;
Wilson, I, 344-8; Johnson, items 804-05. [S]
Scott, David (b. 1864), of Cowdenfoot, near Dalkeith, second generation coal-miner.
Ref: Edwards, 4, 57-9. [S]
? Scott, James Kim (1839-83), of Hardgate, Urr, Kircudbrightshire, of limited
education, tailor, musician, pub. Galloway Gleanings: Poems and Songs (Castle-
Douglas and Edinburgh, 1881). Ref: Harper, 245; Reilly (1994), 425; Edwards, 4,
43-8 and 9, xxv. [S]
? Scott, Mary, later Taylor (?1752-1793), of Milborne Port, Somerset, daughter of a
linen-merchant; her husband [ODNB says it was son, not husband] went on to
found the (Manchester) Guardian newspaper. Pub. The Female Advocate (1774,
reprinted Los Angeles: Augustan Reprint Society, 1984); possibly the Mrs. Scott
who published ‘Dunotter Castle’ and ‘Verses, on a Day of Prayer, for Success in
War’ in Poems by the most Eminent Ladies (1780?); The Messiah, a verse epic
(reviewed in the Monthly Review, 79, 1788, 277' [ODNB]). Ref: ODNB; Lonsdale
(1989), 320-2, Fullard, 566-7. [F]
Scott, Robert, pub. Life of Robert Scott, Journeyman Wright. In Verse, Written by Himself.
With Observations Moral and Religious (Dundee, 1801). [S]
Scown, George (fl. 1836-76), of Exeter, grocer, draper, hopster, journeyman painter,
pub. Such is life!: or, the experiences of a West Country painter...containing many
interesting events and incidents connected with his own history, in Exeter, London,
Windsor, and Oxford, from 1836 to 1876 (Oxford, 1876). Ref: Reilly (2000), 409,
Bodleian.
Seath, William, of Kingskettle, Fife, weaver, pub. Poems, songs, and miscellaneous
pieces, descriptive and humorous (Cupar-Fife, 1869), Rhymes and lyrics: humorous,
serious, descriptive and satirical (St. Helens, 1897). Ref: Reilly (1994), 426; Reilly
(2000), 409. [S]
Sellars, David R. (b. 1854), ‘Smalltingle’, of Dundee, shoemaker, trade unionist, pub.
poems in People’s Friend and elsewhere. Ref: Edwards, 6, 153-62. [S]
Semple, Robert (b. 1841), of Paisley, pattern designer, author of ‘A Sober Saturday
Night’. Ref: Brown, II, 360-64; Leonard, 332-3. [S]
Senior, Joseph (1819-92) Sheffield cutler and blade-forger, pub. Smithy Rhymes and
Stithy Chimes; or, ‘The Short and Simple Annals of the Poor, spelt by the unletter’d
muse’, of your humble bard, Joseph Senior (Sheffield: Leader & Sons, 1882);
Additional Poems to Smithy Rhymes and Stithy Chimes, which have been conceived
during the author’s semi and total blindness (Sheffield: Leader & Sons, 1884), copies
in Bodleian. Ref: Reilly (1994), 427, inf. Bob Heyes.
Service, David (?1776-?1828), of Yarmouth, formerly a shoemaker at Beccles, ‘The
Caledonian Herd Boy’, An Elegy on the death of Mr. Swanton, painter, in Greater
Yarmouth (Yarmouth, 1802), The Caledonian Herd Boy (Yarmouth, 1802), The Wild
Harp’s Murmurs (Yarmouth, 1800), St. Crispin, or the Apprentice Boy (Yarmouth,
1804), A Voyage and Travels in the Region of the Brain (Yarmouth, 1808), A tour in
pursuit of ideas, a picturesque view of all the Yarmouth public houses, a poem
(Yarmouth, 1822), A brief sketch of the different professions, trades, etc. in the parish of
Gorleston with Southtown (Yarmouth, 1828). Ref: Winks, 313, 314, Harvey,
Johnson, item 809, Crambrook, 253. [S]
? Sewell, Robert, pub. An Essay in Rhyme, in two parts (Halsted: M. King, 1834),
contains ‘To Burns’ and ‘To the memory of Bloomfield’, and a list of subscribers
(Johnson, item 813). Ref: Johnson 46, no. 326. [S]
Shand, Alexander (b. 1845), of Drumblade, Aberdeenshire, cattle tending aged nine,
soldier, book canvasser, pub. Poems and songs, composed at home, Gibralter and
Canada (Montreal, 1869), The white cockade: poems and songs composed at home and
abroad, 3rd edlarged edn (Glasgow, 1873). Ref: Edwards, 1, 339-41; Reilly (2000),
413. [S]
Shanks, George Fergusson Smellie (b. 1862), of Whitburn, later patternmaker of
Glasgow, pub. poems in the West Lothian Courier, Weekly Mail and other
newspapers, wrote the operettas ‘A Name at Last’ and ‘The Wizard of the
North’. Ref: Bisset, 291-95. [S]
Shanks, Henry (b. 1829), farmer’s son, drysalter; eyesight failed c. 1862, pub. Poems
(Airdrie, 1872), The Peasant Poets Of Scotland And Musing Under The Beeches
(Edinburgh and Glasgow, 1881). Ref: Edwards, 11, 372-82; Bisset, 161-76; Reilly
(2000), 413. [S]
Sharp, James (fl. 1837-187?), of Paisley, silk mercer, shawl manufacture, pub. The
Captive King and Other Poems (1887). Ref: Brown, II, 27-33. [S]
Shaw, Cuthbert (1738-71), born at Ravensworth, near Richmond, Yorkshire,
shoemaker’s son, school usher, unsuccessful actor. Pub. Liberty (1756, attacked in
the Monthly Review, 14 [1756], 575-6); Odes on the Four Seasons (under pseudonym
'W. Seymour', 1760, Bury St. Edmunds); The Four Farthing-Candles (1762); The
Four Farthing-Candles (1762); The Race (1765, under pseudonyms 'Mercurius Spur'
and 'Faustinus Scriblerus'); A Monody to the Memory of a Young Lady (1768, 1769,
and 1770; the last edition includes An Evening Address to a Nightingale, an elegiac
poem on his three-year old daughter, whose birth killed his wife). Ref: ODNB;
LC 2, 235-50; Cranbrook, 228. [LC 2]
Shaw, James (b. 1826), pattern-designer, printer, schoolmaster at Tynron,
Dumfriesshire; pub. A Country Schoolmaster (1899), full text via Google books; a
kind of literary remains with a long biographical sketch, and selections from his
poetry among his other writings. Ref: Murdoch, 212-14. [S]
Shaw, John (fl. 1824-5), ploughboy, sailor, actor, pub. Woolton Green: a domestic tale,
with other miscellaneous poems (Liverpool, 1825); Don Juan Canto XVII (Liverpool,
1824); Don Juan, Canto XVIII (Liverpool, 1825). Ref: LC 4, 215-34; Johnson, 816-18.
[LC 4]
? Shaw, Thomas, apiarist (beekeeper) of Saddleworth, pub. Recent Poems, on rural and
other miscellaneous subjects (Huddersfield: printed for the author, 1824). Ref:
Johnson, item 822; inf. Bob Heyes; Johnson 46, no. 328 (with illustration of title
page).
Shelley, William (1815-95), illegitimate birth in Marylebone, London, worked in pits,
quarries and fields from age fourteen, herring fisherman and agricultural
labourer in Scotland, became a policeman in Aberdeen, pub. Aston Brook; also, a
poem entitled, Are any bodies found? relating to the ferry-boat disaster on the River Dee
(Aberdeen, ?1863), Flowers by the wayside (Aberdeen and Edinburgh, 1868). Ref:
Edwards, 1, 139-43; 9, 350 and 16, [lix], who gives a death date of 1885; Reilly
(2000), 414.
? Shepheard, James, author of An Hymn to the Holy and Undivided Trinity, written by
James Shepheard during his Imprisonment in Newgate. Printed from the Copy which he
wrote in a Book given to his Mother two hours before his execution (1718, Dobell 1644,
BL 1851.c.19(29); Foxon S397; BL C.116.i.4(70); a dying speech (1718, BL
10350.g.12(16). Ref: Dobell, ESTC.
Shepherd, William, of Larne, working-class writer, pub. Christian Warfare, An epic
poem (1830) which runs to 1800 lines of heroic couplets; Temperance and
Independence (1832). Ref Hewitt. [I]
Shiells [or Sheils or Shields], Robert (d. 1753), of Roxburghshire, of ‘humble origins’,
had little education but an ‘acute understanding’ (Johnson, Lives of the Poets,
cited in ODNB), journeyman printer, poet and editor. Contributed to Johnson's
dictionary (1748). Pub. Marriage (1747); Beauty ('printed in 1766 together with
James Grainger's The Sugar Cane and wrongly ascribed to that author' [ODNB]);
Musidorus (on the death of James Thomson, 1748). Ref: ODNB; Radcliffe. [S]
Shorrock, James (b. 1841), of Craven, West Riding, dame school education, shepherd,
stable-boy, sawpit worker, joiner and cabinet maker, temperance poet. Ref: Hull,
246-53.
Short, Bernard (1803-42), pub. Rural and Juvenile Poems (1821), The Rude Rhymes (1824)
and two later volumes in 1829 and 1840; first book had 330 subscribers and the
second a whopping 1,152. He drowned while bathing. Ref. Hewitt; inf. Bridget
Keegan. [I]
? Shorter, Thomas (‘Thomas Brevoir’) (1823-99), errand boy, watch-case finisher,
journalist, secretary of Society for Promoting Working Men’s Association and of
the Working Men’s College, pub. Echoes from bygone days: or, love lyrics and
character sonnets (London, 1889); Later autumn leaves: thoughts in verse, with
sketches of character chiefly from our village and neighbourhood (London, 1896); Lyrics
for heart and voice: a contribution to the hymnal of the future (London, 1883); Spring
flowers and autumn leaves (London, 1893). Ref: Reilly (1994), 433.
Sievwright, Colin (1819-95), of Brechin, Angus, son of handloom weaver, working
72-hour week for East Mill Co at age of eight (Reilly), pub. A Garland for the
Ancient City: or, love songs for Brechin and its neighbourhood (with historical notes),
2nd edn (Brechin, 1899). Ref: Edwards, 1, 88-91; Reilly (1994), 434. [S]
Sievwright, William (b. 1823), of Brechin, minimal education, began work at 11,
became a mission worker, wrote articles on political and social issues, poems in
newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 1, 187-9. [S]
Sillar, David (fl. 1789), friend of Burns, pub. Poems (Kilmarnock, 1789). Ref: LC 3, 1718; ODNB [a mention only, spelled as ‘Siller’, in the Janet Little entry]; Harvey;
Johnson, item 822. [LC 3] [S]
Simpson, George Muir (b. 1844), of Edinburgh, bookbinder, pub. Shakespeare Rab, and
other Poems (1882). Ref: Edwards, 8, 329-34. [S]
Simson, James (b. 1858), of Huntly, Aberdeenshire, herd laddie, read books to the
‘untutored farm servants, who listened with the greatest attention, while the
mistress of the house threatened to burn every book if he continued to read
them’; later a reporter, wrote historical romances and ‘many poetical pieces’. Ref:
Edwards, 4, 64-9. [S]
Sinclair, Elizabeth M., of New Lanark, ‘a millworker poetess of Ettrick Braes’,
educated in the school founded by Owen, and was able to read books in her
father’s library. During her teens she assisted local women in housework, but
though ‘qualified for a pupil teachership,’ ‘owing to one of the Government
regulations’ she was unable to be employed as a teacher. She moved to Selkirk,
where she was employed in a Tweed manufactory. Her verses include a poem on
a dying soldier, and another on the pleasures of lovely weather. She seems an
instance of someone who tried to leave factory work but was unable to do so.
Ref: Edwards, 4, 84-8; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
Sinclair, Walter (b. 1803), of Kirkcaldy, baker, sailor, farmer, emigrated to Australia
in 1839. Ref: Edwards, 7, 306-8. [S]
Singer, John (b. 1861), of Woodside, Aberdeen, spinner. Ref: Edwards, 12, 116-21.
Singleton, John (fl. 1752-1777), according to Basker ‘a strolling player of whom few
traces survive’; travelled to America, and wrote long descriptive poem, West
Indies (inspired by Grainger) (2nd edn, London, 1777). Ref: Basker, 166-9.
Skerrett, F.W., ‘our locomotive poet’; pub. Rhymes of the Rail (Leeds, 1920). Ref: inf.
John Goodridge. [OP]
Skimming, Robert (1812-82), of Paisley, weaver, pub. Lays of Leisure Hours (Paisley: J.
Bowie, 1841), and another volume in 1851. Ref: Brown, I, 476-80; C. R. Johnson.
cat. 49 (2006), item 50. [S]
Skipsey, Joseph (1832-1903), ‘The Pitman Poet’, of North Shields, mineworker of
Percy Main Colliery. Skipsey was born in Percy Main, Northumberland – the
eighth child of Cuthbert and Isabella – in 1832. His father was killed by a special
constable’s bullet while defending a pitman during an acrimonious strike the
same year. This event left the family destitute, and at seven years old Joseph was
sent to the colliery as a trapper boy. Skipsey learnt how to read and tackle basic
arithmetical questions during Sundays and holidays, mostly in his mother’s
garret, and he taught himself how to write by candlelight with his finger in the
dust or a piece of chalk on a trap-door linked to the ventilation of the mine,
replicating the print on discarded playbills. During his youth, he earnestly
endeavoured to learn the Bible “by heart”, and studied the works of major poets
such as Shakespeare, Milton, and Burns, as well as reading Greek drama in
translation, Goethe’s Faust, and Heine’s poetry. Skipsey spent several years
striving to find a route out of the mines. He experienced periods of employment
in London – where he married his landlady, Sara Ann Hendley – Scotland, and
Sunderland’s Pembroke Pit. Skipsey printed a volume of lyrics in 1859, which
although no longer known to be extant, caught the attention of various
prominent individuals in the North of England. Indeed, the editor of the
Gateshead Observer found Skipsey the position of sub-store keeper at the
Gateshead Iron Works, where he remained until one of his children had a fatal
accident there. Robert Spence Watson commended him to be sub-librarian to the
Literary and Philosophical Society in Newcastle, but this was not an altogether
satisfactory stint due to Skipsey’s insatiable appetite for reading. As Spence
Watson writes, Skipsey “would become absorbed in some passage of a wellknow author, and he would scarcely recognise the eager and impatient member
who wished for his services forthwith”. Thus, Skipsey relocated to Choppington
Colliery - where he balanced hewing work with writing poetry, retiring in 1882.
In 1883, Skipsey delivered a lecture, ‘The Poet as Seer and Singer’ to the Literary
and Philosophical Society, which preceded several books, including Carols from
the Coalfields (1886). It is worthwhile noting that, as Maidment (2002) points out,
“the 1830s and 1840s saw the extension of eighteenth century deferential modes
of publication out from the aristocracy into the middle class entrepreneurs of
artisan progress. Often this resulted in quite close personal relationships
between obscure authors and their famous sponsors”. In Skipsey’s case, Dante
G. Rossetti expressed considerable enthusiasm, meeting him in London, and
finding him “a stalwart son of toil, and every inch a gentlemen”. Rossetti
remarked that Skipsey “recited some beautiful things of his own with a special
freshness to which one is quite unaccustomed”. Rossetti (1878) deemed the
poem ‘Get Up’ as “equal to anything in the language for direct and quiet
pathetic force”. Like much of his work the poem arises from direct observation
of the miner’s everyday life: "Get up!" the caller calls, "Get up!" / And in the dead
of night, / To win the bairns their bite and sup, / I rise a weary wight. / My
flannel dudden donn'd, thrice o'er / My birds are kiss'd, and then / I with a
whistle shut the door / I may not ope again.” With regard to other opinions of
Skipsey’s poetry, the Pall Mall Gazette (Feb 1, 1887) highlights “an intellectual as
well as metrical affinity with Blake” adding that it “possesses something of
Blake’s marvellous power of making simple things seem strange to us, and
strange things seem simple”. The review also stresses that Skipsey “never makes
his form formal by over-polishing” and concludes that he “can find music for
every mood, whether he is dealing with the real experiences of the pitman, or
with the imaginative experiences of the poet”. Many decades later, Basil Bunting
(1975 cited Bigliazzi 2006. p65) lays more stress on the “faults of technique, of
vocabulary, and of syntax… added to the difficulty of reading a dialect written
in the spelling of the capital”, but nevertheless also affirms that the poetry
sometimes has the “power to please and move” to the extent Rossetti describes.
Skipsey was conferred with a civil list pension in 1880 in recognition of his
literary output, which also included putting together popular editions of
eminent poets. Many members of the literary establishment, such as Tennyson
and Bram Stoker, lobbied to have Skipsey appointed as curator of the
Shakespeare House-Museum in Stratford. However, the fraudulent relics he was
duty-bound to present became in his own words “a stench in his nostrils”. He
left the position after three years in 1891 and returned North. Skipsey died at
Gateshead on 3 September 1903, and was buried in the cemetery there. Pub:
Poems, Songs and Sallads (London and Newcastle upon Tyne, 1862), The collier lad,
and and Other Lyrics (Newcastle upon Tyne, 1864), Poems (Blyth: William Alder,
1871), A Book of Miscellaneous Lyrics (Bedlington: George Richardson, 1878),
Carols from the Coalfields, and other songs and ballads (London: Walter Scott, 1886,
new edn. 1888); Songs and Lyrics, Collected and Revised (London: Walter Scott,
1892). Ref: LC 6, 211-40; ODNB; Joseph Skipsey, Selected Poems, ed. William
Daniel McCumiskey and R. K. R. Thornton (Newcastle upon Tyne: Rectory
Press, 2012); Robert Spence-Watson, Joseph Skipsey, His Life and Work (1909);
NCBEL III, 648; Maidment (1983), 79; Maidment (1987), 93-4, 204-5; Klaus (1985),
75-6; Vicinus (1974), 141, 143, 155-8, 167, 169-71, 197-8; Miles, V, 515; Ricks, 526;
Reilly (1994), 436; Reilly (2000), 421-2; Bigliazzi, S (2006) Collaboration in the Arts
from the Middle Ages to the Present. Aldershot: Ashgate. [LC 6] [-Iain Rowley]
? Skirving, Adam (bap. 1719, d. 1803), ‘Johnnie Cope’, of Garleton, Haddingtonshire
farmer, older contemporary of Burns, wrote two much-anthologised Jacobite
songs: 'Tranent Muir' and 'Johnny Cope' (latter published in Burns and Johnson's
Scots Musical Museum [vol. 3, 1790]). Ref: ODNB; Shanks, 115; Edwards, 12, 276.
[S]
Skirving, Peter (1829-69), of Edinburgh, a descendant of Adam Skirving (qv), draper
and outfitter, emigrated to Australia. Ref: Edwards, 12, 276-80. [S]
Sleigh, John, tailor of Linlithgow, ascribed author of a poem on Carriber or Rab Gib’s
Glen pub. in the West Lothian Courier, and contributor of poems to the Dundee
Weekly news. Ref: Bisset, 351-2. [S]
Sloan, Edward L., of Conlig, weaver bard and freemason. The Bard’s Offering: A
Collection of Miscellaneous Poems (1854). Ref. Hewitt. [I]
? Smart, Alexander (1798-1866), shoemaker’s son, of Montrose, Angus, apprentice
watchmaker, became compositor in Edinburgh, wrote prose sketches and verse,
pub. Songs of Labour and Domestic Life; with, Rhymes for Little Readers (Edinburgh
and London, 1860), contributor to ‘Whistlebinkie’. Ref: Edwards, 11, 72-83; Reilly
(2000), 423. [S]
Smart, Thomas Raynor (c. 1772-1847), Chartist poet, born near Loughborough of
working class parents. When Smart’s father died, his mother could not afford to
keep him on at school, so he became a carpenter. Having learnt to read, he then
managed to teach himself Latin, French, Italian and Spanish. He also
demonstrated a talent for verse and contributed to several periodicals. These
gifts and attainments brought him to the notice of the Marquis of Hastings who
found him an appointment as a supervisor of excise which lasted for 17 years.
However, he lost his job as a result of his radicalism and thereafter eked out a
precarious living as a schoolmaster and by making machinery and architectural
drawings. For a time he lived in Loughborough where he was the Chartist leader
Skevington’s chief assistant. He then moved to Leicester, where he became a
supporter of Thomas Cooper. One poem of his was published in the local
Chartist press. Ref: contributor. [—Ned Newitt]
Smith, Alexander (1829-67), son of a Kilmarnock lace-pattern designer, lived in
Paisley and Glasgow; pub. Life Drama (1853); City Poems (Cambridge, 1857;
includes biographical 'A Boy's Poem'), Edwin of Deira (CambrIdge, 1861, 1862),
Poems (New York, 1879), Poetical Works, ed. by W. Sinclair (Edinburgh, 1909). Ref:
DNB/ODNB; Glasgow Poets, 369-76; Brown, II, 264-69; Wilson, II, 467-76; M.A.
Weinstein, W.E. Aytoun and the Spasmodic Controversy (New Haven: Yale
University Press, 1968); N&Q, 8th ser XII (1897), 7, 57, 118, 174 & 311; Douglas,
313-14; Leonard, 207-14, Miles, V, 421, Reilly (2000), 424; Murdoch, 227-32. [S]
? Smith, Alexander, of Zetland Cottage, Falkirk, Stirlingshire, pub. Agriculture: A
Poem in Sixteen Sooks (Edinburgh, 1861). Ref: Reilly (2000), 423. [S]
Smith, David Mitchell (b. 1848), of Bullionfield, Dundee, farm labourer’s son, railway
clerk, dyer, pub. in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 2, 211-14 [S]
Smith, Ebenezer (b. 1835), of High Street, Ayr, third-generation shoemaker, pub.
Verses (Glasgow, 1874); The Season’s Musings (Ayr, 1888). Ref: Edwards, 3, 98-102;
Reilly (1994), 440; Reilly (2000), 424; Murdoch, 288-90. [S]
Smith, Elizabeth (Lizzie) Horne (b. 1876), of Hagghill, Barony Parish, Glasgow, the
youngest of six children of a ploughman who was often forced to change farms,
so received no steady education, though she attended schools in Dumbarton,
Hamilton, and Uddingston; left school and at fifteen began work as a dairymaid;
pub. Poems of a Dairymaid (Paisley, Edinburgh and London, 1898). Poems show
the influence of Burns, and are varied and skilful for the work of a twenty-one
year old author. Ref: Reilly (1994), 440; Boos (2008), 157-71, includes photograph;
inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
Smith, James, shoemaker, of Aberdeen; pub. Hame-spun Rhymes (Aberdeen, 1879),
copy in Bodleian. Ref: Reilly (2000), 425. [S]
Smith, James (1813-1885), ‘Vinney’, of Forfar, handloom weaver, teacher, pub. in the
Dundee papers. Ref: Edwards, 1, 191-3 and 9, xxi. [S]
Smith, James (1824-87), of Edinburgh, son of a coach-lace weaver, printer,
compositor, reader, librarian of the Mechanics’ Library, well-known Scottish
poet and story-writer, pub. Poems and songs (Edinburgh, 1864), The merry bridal o’
Forthmains, and other poems and songs (Edinburgh, 1866, 2nd edn also 1866),
Poems, songs and ballads (Edinburgh, 1869). Ref: Edwards, 1, 260-7 and 12, xviixviii; Reilly (2000), 425-6; Murdoch, 44-52. [S]
Smith, John (b. 1836), of Springbank, Alyth, herder, wholesale draper. Ref: Edwards,
13, 198-205. [S]
Smith, John G., stonemason of Ednam, Roxburghshire, left the district under church
pressure because of his satirical poetry; pub. The Old Churchyard; The Twa Mice,
and Miscellaneous Poems and Songs (Kelso, 1862). Ref: Reilly (2000), 426. [S]
Smith, John Kelday (d. 1889), of Newcastle upon Tyne (born Orkney), bellhanger,
local songwriter. Ref: Allan, 491. [S]
Smith, John S. (b. 1849), of Creetown and later Dalbeattie, granite hewer, President of
the Dalbeattie Literary Society, published in the local papers. Ref: Harper, 251.
[S]
Smith, Margaret (‘Daisy’), of St Andrews, Orkney, farmer’s daughter, pub. in
magazines as ‘Daisy’; poems include ‘Heroism,’ ‘Small Evils,’ ‘Lost to Sight, to
Memory Dear,’ and ‘No Work’. She helped maintain the family farm, and wrote
some good poems on the poor and those who help them, and temperance
poems. This may be the same person as Mrs. M. A. Smith, who published two
volumes, Poems and Songs (Wishaw, 1873) and Poems and Songs (Lanark, 1877).
Ref: Edwards, 13, 33-8; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
? Smith, Mary S. (1822-89), often used pseud. 'Mary Osborn' (the surname of an
employer's family, for whom she worked as a 'mother's help' [ODNB]) or simply
'Z', of Cropredy, Oxfordshire, shoemaker’s daughter, became schoolmistress in
Carlisle, religious and political activist. Contributed early poems to Whitridge's
Miscellany, the People's Journal, Cassell's Magazine, the Carlisle Examiner, and the
Carlisle Journal. Pub. Poems, By M.S. (1860); Progress, and Other Poems, the later
including poems on the social affections and poems on life and behaviour, by M.S.
(London and Carlisle, 1873); The Autobiography of Mary Smith, Schoolmistress and
Nonconformist. A Fragment of a Life. With Letters from Jane Welsh Carlyle and Thomas
Carlyle (1892); Miscellaneous Poems (1892), also wrote about castles; Bodleian. Ref:
ODNB; Vincent, 208; Reilly (1994), 442; Boos (2008), 298-320. Link: wcwp [F]
Smith, Robert Archibald (1780-1829), of Reading, weaver, soldier, music teacher and
choir conductor, friend of Tannahill (qv), pub. Anthems (1819), The Scottish
Minstrel, 6 vols (1821-4, contains more than 600 poems including his most
famous, 'Jessie, the Flow'r o' Dunblane'), The Irish Minstrel, 2 vols (1825), An
Introduction to Singing (1826), Select Melodies (1827). Ref: ODNB; Brown, I, 150-57.
[S]
? Smith, Thomas (d. 1877), of Paisley, letter-press printer, poems in Brown. Ref:
Brown, II, 187-88. [S]
Smith, William, the Haddington Cobbler, A Collection of Original Poems (Edinburgh,
1821), Verses composed on the disgraceful traffic at present carried on of selling the
newly dead (1829). The Haddington Cobbler Defended; or, The doctors dissected. By an
East Linton Gravedigger. Being a reply to the poems published by the Resurrectionist
men (1829); The Haddington Cobbler Dissected Alove [sic? Or sp?], in answer to his
objections against dissecting the dead. (it is not clear whether British Heroism, 1815,
Johnson, item 846, is by the same William Smith. Ref: LC 4, 187-214. [S] [LC 4]
Smith, William Brown (1850-87), of Saltcoats, self-taught stationer and teacher, an
invalid who died young, pub. Life Scenes (1883). Ref: Edwards, 11, 92-99. [S]
Snaddon, Alexander (b. 1842), of Collyland, Clackmannanshire, weaver, lettercarrier, pub. poems in Alloa Journal. Ref: Edwards, 8, 115-20. [S]
Snell, Henry James, working man of the stained glass works, Cumberland Market,
London, pub. Love lies bleeding (London, ?1870), Poems: containing, The three
twilights...The shipwreck, and minor poems (London, 1871). Ref: Reilly (2000), 429.
? Somerville, George Watson (b. 1847), of Edinburgh, stationer, printer, lived in
Manchester, survived major illness, lived in Glasgow, Sunderland, Newcastle,
settled in Carlisle. Ref: Edwards, 4, 170-4. [S]
? Somerville, Robert (b. 1831), of Halmyre, Peebleshire, Edinburgh grocer,
bookseller, member of Edinburgh Council and Justice of the Peace. Ref:
Edwards, 4, 163-4. [S]
Soutar, Alexander M. (b. 1846), of Muirdrum, Panbride, Forfarshire, farmworker,
joiner, soldier, pub. Hearth Rhymes, with an introductory preface by William
Rose (Dundee, 1880). Ref: Edwards, 1, 101-04; Reilly (1994), 445. [S]
Soutar, Elizabeth (b. 1768), ‘The Blind Poetess’ of Dundee, born at Coupar Angus,
daughter of a shoemaker, received some education. She lived in Dundee from
age 13, and in 1835 published in Dundee a fifty-page book of poems and a
memoir; voluntarily rejected dole and maintained herself from sale of rhymes.
Wrote simple hymns. Ref: Reid, 437-8; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
Spalding, Colin (b. 1826), of Rattray, Perthshire, cook, valet, hotelier. Ref: Edwards,
12, 94-8. [S]
Spence, Charles (1779-1869), of Kinfauns, Perthshire, mason, pub. From the braes of the
Carse: poems and songs, ed. by James M. Strachan (Perth, 1898). Ref: Reilly (2000),
431-2, Bodleian. [S]
Spence, Peter (1806-83), of Brechin, Forfarshire, son of a handloom weaver, failed
grocer, successful practical chemist and inventer, lived in Perth, Carlisle and
Manchester, pub. Poems (written in early life) (London, 1888). Ref: ODNB;
Edwards, 13, 136-46; Reilly (1994), 446. [S]
Spence, Thomas (1750-1814), radical writer and bookseller, born in Newcastle upon
Tyne, one of nineteen children of a net-maker and hardware supplier, became a
schoolmaster, later a land plan advocate and London radical. Spence was a
radical who described himself as 'the unfee'd Advocate of the disinherited seed
of Adam'. He was born on the Quayside, one of the more impoverished areas of
Newcastle-upon Tyne. One of nineteen children, Thomas was denied a formal
education and required to work at the age of ten. However, his father Jeremiah, a
net-maker, encouraged him to read and critique the chapters of the Bible, and
with the aid of Revd James Murray – a radical Presbyterian to whose breakaway
congregation Thomas belonged – he was able to advance from being a clerk to
becoming a schoolmaster by 1775. Undoubtedly influenced by the Glassite
congregation’s belief that in order to realise the millennial society in which all
land is held in common, ‘men must act in concert’ (Political Works, p. viii), Spence
published The Grand Repository of the English Language (1775), positing the virtue
of a new phonetic alphabet for extending literacy in the ‘laborious part of the
people’. Despite the work being met with a frosty reception upon publication,
Spence persisted in propagating his phonetic alphabet throughout his life, and
contemporary philologists consider his efforts decidedly significant. Spence
became a founder member of the Newcastle Philosophical Society in 1775, which
included Thomas Bewick as well as James Murray. The catalyst for him
delivering a lecture on The Real Rights of Man was a campaign he and Murray
fought to preserve the Newcastle freemen’s customary rights by thwarting the
corporation’s enclosure of the Town Moor. The reading represented the principle
public occasion on which Spence detailed his land plan; it proposed that the
parish should manage all land – the true source of political power – within its
own boundaries, for the benefit of every inhabitant. Spence was expelled from
the society when he published it without permission and hawked it about the
streets of Newcastle, yet this did not prevent the land plan from remaining the
backbone of his later radical political discourses. While in Newcastle, Spence
produced his first recorded poem, ‘The Jubilee Hymn’, around 1782, and also
began his coin-stamping venture, countermarking slogans to publicise his
material. Following the death of Murray; his publisher, Thomas Saint; and his
discharge from St Ann’s School in Sandgate, Spence and his son moved to
London, where by 1792 he surfaced as a radical bookseller and author. His vision
of a welfare state was developed over many pamphlets, including The End of
Oppression (1795), Description of Spensonia (1795), Rights of Infants (1797), and The
Restorer of Society to its Natural State (1801). Spence produced a periodical
between 1793 and 1795 entitled, One Penny Worth of Pig’s Meat: Lessons for the
Swinish Multitude. The journal signals a rejoinder to Burke’s bewailing of the
post-revolution prospects of education in Reflections on the Revolution in France
(1790) – where ‘learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the
hooves of a swinish multitude’ – and reproduced selections from such writers as
John Locke, Joseph Priestley and William Godwin. His own writings were not
without irony or humour, and possessed a style tailored to convert poor
men. Tim Burke (2003. p268) notes that Spence’s ‘ballads of rural hardship pave
the way for those of Wordsworth and Coleridge later in the decade, and his lyric
works at times demonstrate something of the radical simplicity of Blake’s Songs
of Innocence and Experience (1789-94) of the same period’. Anne Janowitz (1998.
p79) suggests that song lyric and poetry make themselves heard in Spence’s
prose polemics, ‘either as a coda, or a representational example, or as a
performative exhortation’. Janowitz (p72) views Spence as embodying an
alternative trajectory of British romanticism, articulating a ‘poetic activism which
valued a collective voice, made a claim for cultural tradition, and directed poetry
into the centre of political life’. With the French Revolution instilling anxiety in
the British authorities, repressive measures were called upon Spence’s
propagandising: he was arrested on 20 May 1794 on suspicion of treasonable
practices, and owing to the suspension of habeas Corpus, held at Newgate Prison
for seven months without trial. In 1798, Spence defended himself with great
impudence against accusations of seditious practices and disaffection, and had to
suffer a year in Shrewsbury Gaol. Spence was not easily silenced; on his release
he published The Important Trial of Thomas Spence (1803) - first in his reformed
spelling, later (1807) in conventional spelling. He died of a bowel complaint in
Castle Street, London on 1 September 1814, but not before introducing two issues
of a new periodical, The Giant Killer, or, Anti-Landlord, and attracting a band of
disciples, who convened as a Free and Easy Club in local taverns to explore his
ideas and sing his songs. Following his death, these Spencean Philanthropists
perpetuated his convictions and engaged in such revolutionary activity as the
Spa Field riots of 1816 and the Cato Street conspiracy of 1820. Furthermore,
advocates of Spence’s land plan were active in the 1830s in both the National
Union of the Working Classes and the Chartist movement. Published numerous
unsuccessful theories on adult education and social justice, including The Grand
Repository of the English Language (1775, Newcastle: T. Saint); A Supplement to the
History of Robinson Crusoe (1782, Newcastle: T. Saint); The Real Reading Made Easy
(1782, Newcastle: T. Saint); The Case of Thomas Spence, Bookseller (1792, London);
The Rights of Man (1793, London); One Pennyworth of Pigs' Meat or Lessons for the
Swinish Multitude, (2nd ed. Vols I, II, III, 1793-5; London); The Meridian Sun of
Liberty (1795, London); The Coin Collector's Companion (1795, London); The End of
Oppression (1795, London); The Reign of Felicity (1796, London); The Rights of
Infants (1797, London); The Constitution of a Perfect Commonwealth (1798, London);
The Restorer of Society to its Natural State (1801, London); The Important Trial of
Thomas Spence (2nd ed, 1807, London); The Giant Killer, or Anti - Landlord Nos. 1, 2
(1814, London). Pigs’ Meat: the Selected Writings of Thomas Spence, Radical and
Pioneer Land Reformer (ed. Gallop, G.I, 1982); The Political Works of Thomas Spence
(ed. Dickinson, H.T, 1982). Ref: ODNB; LC 3, 267-74; Ashraf, P. M. (1983). The Life
and Times of Thomas Spence. Newcastle: Frank Graham; Beal, J. C. (1994) ‘Thomas
Spence’ in The Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics eds. R.E. Asher & J. M. Y.
Simpson. Oxford: Pergamon Press, p. 4319; Beal, J. C. (1999) English Pronunciation
in the Eighteenth Century: Thomas Spence’s 'Grand Repository of the English Language’
Oxford: Clarendon Press; Chase, M (1988) ‘The People’s Farm’: English Radical
Agrarianism 1775-1840. Oxford: Clarendon Press;Davenport, A (1836) The Life,
Writing, and Principles of Thomas Spence. London; Janowitz, A (1998) Lyric and
Labour in the Romantic Tradition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press;
McCalman, I (1988) Radical Underworld: Prophets, Revolutionaries and Pornographers
in London, 1795-1840. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press; Scrivener, M, ed
(1992) Poetry and Reform: Periodical Verse from the English Democratic Press 17921824. Detroit: Wayne State University Press; Smith, O (1984) The Politics of
Language 1791-1819. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Thompson, E.P (1963) The Making
of the English Working Class. London: Gollancz; Wood, M (1994) Radical Satire and
Print Culture, 1790-1822. Oxford: Clarendon Press; Worrall, D (1992) Radical
Culture: Discourse, Resistance and Surveillance, 1790-1820. Hemel Hempstead:
Harvester Wheatsheaf.. [LC 3] [—Iain Rowley]
Spencer, Richard, of Holbeck, Leeds, apprenticed to a brushmaking firm, pub. Field
flowers: poems (Batley and Leeds, 1891). Ref: Reilly (1994), 446.
Stagg, John (1770-1823), known as 'The Blind Bard', Cumberland poet of peasant life,
lost sight in youth, Miscellaneous Poems (1790), Miscellaneous Poems, some of which
are in the Cumberland and Scottish dialects (1804, 1805, 1807, 1808), The Minstrel of
the North; or, Cumbrian legends (Manchester, 1816), The Cumberland Minstrel: being
a poetical miscellany of legendary, Gothic, and romantic tales … together with several
essays in the northern dialect, also a number of original pieces (3 vols., Manchester,
1821), Legendary, gothic and romantic tales, in verse, and other original poems, and
translations. By a northern minstrel (Shrewsbury, 1825). Ref: ODNB; inf. Michael
Baron; Johnson, items 850-7; Johnson 46, no. 332.
Stark, William (b. 1857), of Anderson, Glasgow, postal worker, pub. poems in
newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 9, 232-8. [S]
? Standing, James (1848-78), of Cliviger, near Burnley, bobbin maker from before the
age of eight, later teacher, auctioneer and other jobs, learned French and
German, pub. Lancashire and Yorkshire Comic, Historic and Poetic Almanack (18737), Ref: Abraham Stansfield, ‘Folk Speech of the Lancashire and Yorkshire
Border’, Essays and Sketches, being a few selections from the prose writings of twenty
years (Manchester: Printed for the Author by the Manchester Scholastic Trading
Co., 1897); Hollingworth, 154-5.
Steel or Steele, Andrew (1811-82), of Coldstream, Berwickshire, shoemaker, pub.
Poetical works, 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1863), Poetical productions, 3rd edn
(Edinburgh, 1864, 4th edn 1865), Select productions, 5th edn (Edinburgh, 1867),
Poetical works (Edinburgh, 1871). Ref: Edwards, 3, 76-80 and 9, xx; Crockett, 15862; Reilly (2000), 436. [S]
? Steel, Mrs, author of Pathetic and Religious Poems (London, 1839) seems a genuinely
humble poet; possibly not Scottish. Ref: inf. Florence Boos. [F] ?[S]
Steel, William, letter carrier, later a concert singer, pub. Scotland’s natural songster:
songs and addresses, written and sung by Willliam Steel (Invercargill, 1865). Ref:
Reilly (2000), 436. [S]
Stephens, Charles Taylor (b. 1863), of Liverpool, shoemaker by trade, became rural
postman in Cornwall, living in St Ives, pub. The chief of Barat-Anac, and other
poems, songs, &c. (St Ives and Penzance, 1862), 36 pp, Morrab Library, Penzance;
preface states ‘These poems were not written with any intention to publish them,
nor would they appear in print if the writer were able to earn a living at his
trade’. Ref: Reilly (2000), 437; inf. Kaye Kossick. [LC6]
? Stephenson, William (b. 1763), of Newcastle upon Tyne, watchmaker disabled by
an accident, schoolmaster, pub. a volume of poems in 1832. Ref: Allan, 119-21.
Stevens, George Alexander (1710-84), of Holborn, London, son of a tradesman
who tried to apprentice him in a trade, but he ran away to become strolling
player (according to ODNB, a rather bad actor); lecturer, playwright; pub.
Religion, or, The Libertine Repentant: a Rhapsody (Bath, 1751); The Poet's Fall
(Dublin, 1752); A Week's Adventures (Dublin, 1752); Distress upon Distress,
(Dublin, 1752); The Tombs, a Rhapsody (Dublin, 1752); New Comic Songs (1753); The
Birth-Day of Folly (1754); Collection of New Comic Songs (1759); Songs, Comic and
Satyrical (1772, contains 134 songs). Ref: ODNB.
? Stevenson, Edith (‘Edith’), of Edinburgh, pub. The Yetts o’ Muckart: or, the famous
pic-nic and the brilliant barn-ball, in hairst, auchteen-hunder an’ seventy-one
(Edinburgh, 1872). Ref: Reilly (2000), 438. [F] [S]
Stevenson, Jane, mason’s wife whose husband died at 34, leaving her with five
children, pub. Verses (Banff, 1866). Poems include ‘Arndilly,’ ‘The Banks of the
Dee,’ and ‘My Own Life’. Ref: Boos (1998); Reilly (2000), 438; Boos (2008), 146-56;
inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
Stevenson, Jane, cattle herder, anonymously self-published her Homely Musings by a
Rustic Maiden (Kilmarnock: Printed for the Author, 1870; online via Google
Books). Ref: Boos (2008), 146-56. Link: wcwp [F] [S]
Stevenson, John, of Paisley, weaver, appeared in miscellanies. Ref: Brown, I, 212-14.
[S]
Stevenson, Miss (fl. 1870), ‘The Rustic Maiden’; the first page of her book’s preface
recounts that Stevenson herded cows as girl, and memorized and imitated old
popular songs. (The preface breaks off abruptly, and perhaps the second page is
missing.) She was derided by her family for writing, however, and thenceforth
she wrote in secret; pub. Homely Musings, by a Rustic Maiden (Kilmarnock:
printed for the author, 1870). Poems include ‘Written on the Death of My Father
and The Prospect of Then Leaving My Birthplace,’ ‘Garnock Water,’ ‘The
Emigrant Youth.--Song,’ Home,’ ‘Companions of My Youthful Years,’ ‘Song,’
‘The Wandering Dog,’ ‘The Bible, ‘Critics, or the World’s Two Great Extremes,’
‘Song of the Engineers,’ ‘Song of the Ploughmen,’ ‘Song. The Homes of My
Fathers,’ accompanied by a prose account of her visit to where her parents’
families had lived, ‘Donald M’Donald, or My Sweet Highland Home,’ ‘The
Prophetess, or Seer of Visions,’ ‘Song of the Trees,’ ‘Husband and Wife,’ ‘The
Fairy Dale.’ She seems to have been impressed with the dreaming or prophetic
state, for several poems describe fairies or prophecies. Ref: inf. Florence Boos. [F]
[S]
Stewart, Alexander (b. 1841), of Galston, Ayrshire, weaver, book-deliverer, city
mission worker, pub. Bygone memories, and other poems, with an Introductory
Preface by Alexander Macleod (Edinburgh, 1888). Ref: Edwards, 10, 120-9; Reilly
(1994), 453. [S]
Stewart, Allan (1812-37), of Paisley, drawboy and weaver, pub. posthumous volume,
Poetic Remains of the Late Allan Stewart (Paisley, 1838). Ref: Brown, II, 20-23;
Jarndyce, item 1489. [S]
Stewart, Andrew (b. 1842), of Gallowgate, Glasgow, machine operator, journalist and
poet. Ref: British Workman, c. 1893; Edwards, 15, 97-103. [S]
Stewart, Charles (b. 1813), of Bailleston, Glasgow, weaver, went to Canada in 1856,
later librarian of Galt Mechanics’ Institute, pub. The Harp of Strathnaver: A Lay of
the Scottish Highland Evictions, and other poems (Galt, Ontario, c. 1885). Ref:
Edwards, 8, 305-11 and 11, 287-92. [S]
Stewart, James (1801-43), shoemaker of Perth, wrote verse ‘Sketches of Scottish
Character’. Ref: Edwards, 1, 211-14; Douglas, 308;
http://www.fife.50megs.com/james-stewart.htm. [S]
Stewart, James (b. 1841), of Johnstone, Dumfriesshire, farm worker, railwayman. Ref:
Edwards, 6, 252-8. [S]
Stewart, John Joseph Smale (b. 1838), in Ireland where his soldier father was
stationed, raised in Lochearnhead, brother of Sarah Jane Hyslop (qv), sailor,
travelled in Bermuda and Nova Scotia, took part in the Russian war, later a
farmer and gold prospector in Australia, finally a schoolmaster at Tamarara. Ref:
Edwards, 7, 61-4. [I] [S]
Stewart, Robert (1806-85), of Paisley, handloom weaver, pub. some of his pieces in
1851. Ref: Brown, I, 389-91. [S]
Stewart, Thomas (b. 1840), ‘Rustic Rhymer’ of Larkhall, Lanarkshire, coalminer. pub.
in local press, and a vol of Doric Rhymes, some hamely Rhymes (Larkhall, 1875).
Ref: Murdoch, 362-5, [S]
Stewart, Thomas (b. 1859), of Monboy, Brechin, farmboy, grocer. Ref: Edwards, 8,
188-92. [S]
Stewart, William (b. 1835), of Aberlour, shoemaker, shopkeeper. Ref: Edwards, 12,
89-94 (Edwards’ index, vol. 16, gives a death date as 1848, clearly in error). [S]
Stewart, William (b. 1867), of Waterside, Lochlee, farmworker. Ref: Edwards, 10, 13941. [S]
Stibbons, Frederick, pub. The Poems of a Norfolk Ploughman (1902). Ref: inf. John
Goodridge. [OP]
Still, Peter (1814-48), of Longside, Aberdeenshire, cattle herder, father of Peter Still
(1835-69) (qv), poet, pub. Cottar’s Sunday and Other Poems. Ref: Edwards, 3, 305-8;
Shanks, 153-4. [S]
? Still, Peter (1835-69), poet, son of Peter Still (1814-48) (qv) the cattle-herder poet.
Ref: Edwards, 1, 173 and 16, [lix]. [S]
Story or Storey, Robert (1795-1860), of Wark, Northumberland, worked as gardener,
shepherd and schoolteacher, made the acquaintance of John Nicholson, pub.
Craven Blossoms (Skipton, 1826, Johnson, item 872); The magic fountain, with other
poems (London, 1829); The outlaw, a drama in five acts (London, 1839); Songs and
lyrical poems (Liverpool, 1837); Love and Literature: Being the Reminiscences, Literary
Opinions and Fugitive Pieces of a Poet in Humble Life (London, 1842), contributed to
The Festive Wreath (1842), Poetical Works of Robert Story (London, 1857), includes
autobiographical preface, The lyrical and other minor poems of Robert Story, with a
sketch of his life and writings by John James (London and Bradford, 1861). Ref:
ODNB; Vicinus (1974), 141, 143, 148-9, 151, 164, 167, 170-1, 173-4, 176, 179,
Maidment (1987), 144-5, Harvey, Vincent, 97, Johnson, items 872-6, Vincent, 208,
LION, Crossan, 40n33, Reilly (2000), 442; Keegan (2008), 93-5.
? Stott, Benjamin, of Manchester, bookbinder and poet, Chartist, Referred to in
Alexander Wilson’s ‘The Poet’s Corner’, pub. ‘The Songs of the Millions’ in The
Northern Star in 1842, Songs for the Millions and Other Poems (London, 1843). Ref:
Kovalev, 106-9, Scheckner, 305-8, 343, Vincent, 124n, 188.
Stott, Margaret Watt, ‘Maggie’ (b. 1862), of Montrose, daughter of Mr. J. E. Watt; in
early life received ‘a fair education,’ and afterwards worked as a domestic
servant; m. William Stott in 1882, with whom she lived in Brechin until some
years later he became a station agent in Newtonhall. Stott was described by
Edwards as ‘employed in public works in her native town’; pub. Poetical Sketches
of Scottish Life and Character. Her verses, all of which were religious, included
‘Waitin’ The Maiser,’ ‘The Auld Year,’ and ‘Only Trust Him’. Ref: Edwards, 10,
167-9; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
? Stratton, Nicholas, a ‘rustic farmer’s son’ from Huntingdonshire, poet of humble
origins, pub. Poems on Various Subjects (1824) which includes a poem on the death
of Bloomfield, and the intro cites Bloomfield and Clare as influences. Ref:
Crossan, 37; Powell, item 369; inf. Greg Crossan.
Straycock, James (d. c. 1830), sailor of Yarmouth, pub. The son of commerce, an original
poem, in thirty-four cantoes [sic], written by a sailor. To which is added his grand ode on
the death and funeral of the late Lord Nelson (London: More and Son, 1806). Ref: C.
R. Johnson, cat. 49 (2006), item 54.
Struthers, John (1776-1853), of Longcalderwood, Lanarkshire, shoemaker poet,
moved to Glasgow, pub. Poems on various subjects (1801), Anticipation (1803), The
Poor Man’s Sabbath (1804), The Peasant’s Death and other poems (1806), The Winter’s
Day with other poems (Glasgow, 1811), Poems moral and religious (1814), The Plough
and other poems (Glasgow, 1816), An essay on the state of the labouring poor (1816),
The Harp of Caledonia (1819), The British Minstrel (1821), The History of Scotland
(1827), The Poor Man’s Sabbath and Other Poems (1832), Dychmont: A Poem
(Glasgow, 1836). Ref: ODNB, Glasgow Poets, 132-40; Wilson, I, 540-51; Winks, 31415; Harvey; Johnson, items 880-2. [S]
? Sutherland, Frank (b. 1844), ‘Uncle Peter’, hairdresser, of Morayshire, pub. Sunny
Memories of Morayland. Ref: Murdoch, 399-401. [S]
Sutherland, George (1866-93), born near Durham but moved early to Berwick,
worked in coal trade at Berwick Station, pub. poems in newspapers. Ref:
Edwards, 8, 209-12. [S]
Sutherland, William (b. 1797), a ‘young working class author’ of Langton,
Berwickshire, ‘The Langton Bard’, son of a Highland cattleman, joiner, grocer,
emigrated to America in 1823, pub. Poems and songs (Haddington: printed for the
author, by James Miller, 1821), which includes a lament on the death of Robert
Burns and a poem on Allan Ramsay. Ref: Edwards, 12, 166-9; Crockett, 137-8;
Johnson, item 887. [S]
Swain, Charles (1801 or 1803-74), of Manchester, dyehouse clerk, poet, lithographer,
member of the ‘Sun Inn’ group of Manchester poets, pub. Metrical Essays (1827,
1828; dedicated to Charles Tavaré), Beauties of the Mind, a poetical sketch; with lays,
historical and romantic (London, 1831; dedicated to Southey, who wrote back to
him: ‘If ever man was born to be a poet, you are; and if Manchester is not proud
of you yet, the time will certainly come when it will be so’ [ODNB]), Art and
Fashion, with other sketches, songs and poems (London, 1863), Dryburgh Abbey, and
other poems (London and Manchester, 1868), A Cabinet of Poetry and Romance:
Female Portraits from the Writings of Byron and Scott (1845), Dramatic Chapters
(1847), Letters of Laura d'Auverne (1853), English Melodies (1849), and Songs and
Ballads (1867). Ref: ODNB; Harland, frontispiece and 217-20, 233, 241-, 244-7, 252,
293-4, 311-12, 323-4, 350-1, 355, 363-4, 422-3, 443, 473, 481-2, Cross, 147-8,
Maidment (1987), 121-4, Vicinus (1973), 743, Vicinus (1974), 160, Johnson, items
888-9, DNB, LION, X, xii, Reilly (2000), 446.
? Swain, John (b. 1815), of Haddenly Hall, Holmfirth, Yorkshire, cloth finisher,
teacher, inspector of letter carriers, lived at Otley, pub. Cottage carols, and other
poems (London, 1861), The tide of even, and other poems, with tales and songs
(London and Otley, 1877). Ref: Reilly (2000), 446.
Swain, Joseph (1761-1796), apprenticed as engraver, Baptist hymn-writer; pub. A
collection of poems. On several occasions (London, [1781]); Redemption. A poem
(London, 1789, 1797); Walworth Hymns (1792, two editions; 1799, 3rd edition).
Ref: ODNB; ESTC.
? Swan, Maggie (b. 1867), of Edinburgh, daughter of a former potato merchant who
leased the farm of Mountskip, in the neighbourhood of Gorebridge. The
youngest sister of the better-known poet Annie Swan (qv, ‘Annie S Swan Smith’),
Maggie attended a village school and the Queen Street Institute for Young
Ladies, after which she returned home to help with household duties; pub. in
local journals such as the People’s Journal, and her verses include ‘The Homes of
Scotland, ‘The Greatest of the Three,’ ‘Change,’ God’s Ways,’ and ‘The Hope of
the Spring’. Arguably the Swan sisters might have been considered middle class.
Ref: Edwards, 10; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
Swan, Robert (b. 1853), of Kirkburn, Peebles, draper, pub. in newspapers. Ref:
Edwards 10, 62-6. [S]
? Swan Smith, Annie S. (b. 1859-1943), 'David Lyall', born in Berwickshire, near
Coldingham, one of seven children including sister Maggie (qv), also a writer,
briefly attended the Queen Street Ladies College in Leith, but was not an
attentive student and soon quit. Swan paid her husband's (James Burnett Smith)
way through medical school at Edinburgh University. She became a prolific and
popular novelist, who published two volumes of poetry, My Poems (Dundee and
London: John Leng, 1900?), circulated by The People’s Friend) and Songs of Memory
and Hope (Edinburgh: Nimmo, 1911). See also My Life: An Autobiography (London,
1934). Arguably the Swan sisters might have been considered middle class. Ref:
ODNB; Borland, 237; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
Swanson, Thomas, unemployed collier and dialect poet, pub. Select Poems (North
Shields, 1878). Ref: Charles Cox (bookseller), catalogue 51 (2005), item 263.
Swift, John, of Rochdale, Lance, Private in the King's Own Light Infantry, served at
Waterloo, pub. Reminiscences of the Battle of Waterloo (Rochdale, 1864). Ref: Reilly
(2000), 447.
Syme, James, Chartist, author of ‘Labour Song’ (The Northern Star, 26 December
1840). Ref: Maidment (1987), 42-4; Kovalev, 80-1; Scheckner, 309-10, 343.
Symonds, Thomas Dudley (1847-1915), of Dulwich, ‘The Woodbridge Poet’, boot
and shoe maker, pub. Sparks from the Jubilee Bonfire (Woodbridge, [1888]). Ref:
Copsey (2002), 341.
Tait, Alexander (fl. 1790), of Paisley, tailor, author of ‘A Ramble Through Paisley’ in
his Poems and Songs (Paisley, 1790), wrote poems against Burns (as did Maxwell).
Ref: Brown, I, 198-206; Leonard, 36-7. [S]
Tannahill, Robert (1774-1810), of Paisley, weaver, major poet, drowned himself, pub.
Poems and songs, chiefly in the Scottish dialect (Paisley, 1815), The soldier’s
return...with other poems and songs (Paisley, 1807); see elegies to him in Brown, I,
209-11. Ref: ODNB; NRA (Glasgow); Harp R, xxxii-xliv; Wilson, I, 501-8;
Maidment (1983), 85; Johnson, items 334, 892-3; Douglas, 296-9; Brown, I, 86-95;
Leonard, 38-52 & 373; LION; Miles, II, 73-86; Basker, 679-80. [S]
Tasker, David (b. 1840), of Dundee, mill boy, weaver (warper), mill manager, lived in
Carlisle, pub. Musings of leisure hours (Carlisle, 1878). [Brother 'John Paul'
mentioned in entry on David Lundie Grieg.] Ref: Reilly (2000), 451, Edwards, 2,
280-3. [S]
Tate, Matthew (b. 1837), of Benton, Northumberland, miner, poet, pub. Stray
Blossoms (1874), Pit life in 1893 (Blyth, 1894), Poems, songs and ballads (Blyth, 1898).
Ref: Reilly (1994), 463, Newcastle Central Library, Charles Cox (bookseller),
Catalogue 51 (2005), item 266.
Tatersal, Robert (fl. 1734-1735), bricklayer, of Kingston upon Thames, author of The
Bricklayer’s Miscellany; or, Poems on Several Subjects (second edition, 1734: BL
1162.k.2). Ref: LC 1, 275-310; ODNB; Unwin, 72-3; Røsvig, II, 158; Shiach, 53-4;
Klaus (1985), 4-7 and 14; Lonsdale (1984), 278-80, 844n; Phillips, 213; Harvey;
Christmas, 110-15. [LC 1]
Tatton, William, working man of Stoke, Devonport, pub. Edwin and Marguerite: a
legend and other poems (London and Devonport, 1860). Ref: Reilly (2000), 452.
? Taylor, Andrew B., of Arbroath, ‘Quill’, compositor on the Arbroath Guide. Ref:
Edwards, 4, 311-16. [S]
Taylor, David (1817-76), ‘The Saint Ninians Poet’, of Dollar, Clackmannanshire,
weaver, moved to Stirlingshire, wrote and set songs, wrote for newspapers,
drowned in the river Devon on holiday at Dollar, pub. include Miscellaneous
Poems (1827), Welm and Amelia with other Poems (1830), The poems and songs of
David Taylor, with memoir, notes, and glossary by William Harvey (Stirling, 1893).
Ref: Reilly (2000), 453; Edwards, 15, 397-400. [S]
Taylor, David (b. 1831), of Dundee, handloom then powerloom weaver, Secretary of
the Nine Hours movement, author of ‘many stirring poems’. Ref: Edwards 1, 267. [S]
Taylor, Ellen (fl. 1792), daughter of ‘an indigent cottager’, pub. Poems (Dublin, 1792).
Ref: LC 3, 253-60; Lonsdale (1989), 455-7; Carpenter, 473. [I] [F] [LC 3]
Taylor, James (1794-c. 1864), the Royton poet, Lancashire cotton-worker, self-taught,
pub. vols. in 1825 and 1830; posthumously pub. Miscellaneous Poems (Oldham:
Hurst and Rennie, 1864). Ref: inf. Bob Heyes.
Taylor, James (1813-75), of Main of Nairn, near Stanley, Perthshire, journeyman
pattern-drawer, calico printing designer, resided in Glasgow. Ref: Edwards, 4,
174-6. [S]
Taylor, Jessie Mitchell (1815-80), of Paisley, kept a fruit and seed shop, son of John
Mitchell (qv). Her verses are included in Brown’s Paisley Poets, and in Lays of St.
Mungo; or The Minstrelsy of the West (1844). Three also appeared in her father
John Mitchell (qv)’s The Wee Steeple Ghaist (1840). Ref: Brown, II, 48-51; inf.
Florence Boos. [F] [S]
? Taylor, John, ‘The Water Poet’ (1580-1653), of St. Ewen's, Gloucester, claimed to
'have served Elizabeth at sea on seven occasions' (ODNB), pub. Taylors Farewell to
the Tower Bottles (1622); The Sculler, Rowing from Tiber to Thames (a collection of
verses, 1612); The Nipping and Snipping of Abuses (1614); Taylors Urania (1615); and
numerous prose travel tales and political tracts. Ref: ODNB; Radcliffe; Southey,
15-87, Craik, II, Unwin, 21-3, Harvey; Christmas, 66-7. [OP]
Taylor, John (fl. 1787), stay-maker of Limerick, known as an eccentric. Ref: Carpenter,
428. [I]
Taylor, John (fl. ?1827), cotton spinner of Manchester, author of a ‘Jone o’ Grinfield’
broadside ballad on his unemployment and hardship, reproduced and discussed
by Hepburn. Ref: Hepburn, I, 40; II, 377, 387-8.
Taylor, John (b. 1839), of Raddery, Ross-shire, orphaned son of a shoemaker, stable
boy, merchant’s assistant, gardener, navigator on the Highland railway, took
different jobs throughout Scotland before settling in Edinburgh, pub. Poems,
chiefly on themes of Scottish interest, with introductory preface by W. Lindsay
Alexander (Edinburgh, 1875). Ref: Edwards, 1, 77-80; Reilly (2000), 453-4. [S]
Taylor, John Kay, self-taught apprentice of Oldham, pub. The Land of Burns and other
poems, and The Burial of Burns (Glasgow, 1847). Ref: Manchester Public Library
copy of the latter.
Taylor, Kirkwood, of Derby, railwayman, pub. 'Behold the fowls of the air': thoughts in
blank verse on matters social and religious (Leicester and Wallasey, Cheshire: 1899).
Ref: Reilly (1994), 465.
Taylor, Malcolm (b. 1850), of Dundee, plumber, private secretary, pub. in
newspapers, emigrated to America with his family at age 10. Ref: Ross, 144-51;
Edwards, 6, 101-7. [S]
Teenan, Joseph (1830-83), of Edinburgh, tailor, self-educated, lived in London and
East Linton, pub. Song and satire (London, 1876). Ref: Edwards, 2, 229-33 and 9,
xxv; Reilly (2000), 454. [S]
Teer, John, of Manchester, cotton piecer (weaver) and poet, pub. Silent Musings
(Manchester, 1869). Ref: Vincent, 125n, Reilly (2000), 454.
? Teft, Elizabeth (bap. 1723), of Rothwell, Lincolnshire, regarded Duck as a precedent
and had ‘want of learning’; but Isobel Grundy in ODNB says she was of
middling rank, though not well off financially, and that little is known of her life
except from verses; pub. Orinthia’s Miscellany, or, A Compleat Collection of Poems
(1747). Ref: ODNB; Lonsdale (1989), 217-19. [F]
Telfer, James (1800-62), of Southdean, Roxburghshire, shepherd’s son, and shepherd,
later schoolmaster, poet and novelist, pub. Border Ballads and Other Miscellaneous
Pieces (1824, reminiscent of Burns [ODNB], contains 'The Gloamyne Buchte’ and
‘The Kerlyn's Brocke’), dedicated to Hogg. Ref: ODNB; Wilson, II, 217-22,
Shanks, 141, Johnson, item 897. [S]
? Telford, Thomas (1757-1834), of Glendinning sheep farm, Westerkirk, Eskdale,
Dumfriesshire, shepherd’s son, father died in his infancy, parish school
education, stonemason, later a major major civil engineer (Caledonian Canal,
Menia Bridge, Gotha Canal); pub. a poem in Ruddiman’s Weekly Magazine (5 May
1779, then, Eskdale (London, 1781, Shrewsbury, 1795). According to ODNB, he
wrote at least 12 poems in his life including an extended poem to Burns, 26
verses of which were printed in many editions of Burns from 1801. Ref: ODNB;
Miller, 142-3. [S]
Telford, William (b. 1828), of Leitholm, drain digger, emigrated to Canada as a
farmer, pub. a vol of selected poems. Ref: Ross, 187-93; Crockett, 245-7. [S]
? Tennant, George (1819-56), of Airdrie, orphaned, brother to Robert Tennant (qv),
though quite different in character, Robert being ‘of a bouyant and cheery
disposition’ while George ‘from his earliest years suffered from constitutional
melancholy’; their contrasting spirits being ‘distinctly reflected in their writings’.
Ref: Knox, 301-302. [S]
Tennant, Robert (1830-79), of Airdrie, Lanarkshire, orphaned handloom weaver,
postal messenger, letter-carrier, brother of George Tennant (qv); pub. Wayside
musings (Airdrie, 1872); see also the David Thomson (qv) poem ‘To Robert
Tennant [qv] (Airdrie’s Postman Poet)’ (Knox, 213), and various other poems
reprinted in the account in Knox (317-27) of the Airdrie Burns Club’s
celebrations of Tennant’s centenary in 1930, reflecting the enduring popularity of
this cheerful and familiar local figure. Ref: Edwards, 1, 168-71; Murdoch, 221-6;
Knox, 77-95, 213; Reilly (2000), 455. [S]
Terry, Lucy (1730-1821), considered to be first African-American poet, wrote a poem
on the Indian attack on Deerfield, MA (1746). Ref: Basker, 99-100. [F]
Thistlethwaite, James, Chatterton’s friend, bluecoat boy apprenticed to a stationer;
author of The Prediction of Liberty (1776), full text via Google Books, Dobell 1802,
BL 11630.e.16(5); The Consultation (Bristol, 1774, 1775), BL 11659.bb.46(1);
Corruption (1780), BL 11642.ee.14(1). Note that Basker, 193-4, includes ‘Bambo
and Giffar, An African Eclogue’, as apparently by ‘Thomas Thistlethwaite’
[‘S.E.’], dated 1771. Ref: Daniel Wilson, Thomas Chaterton [sic?], a Biographical
Study (___); Dobell, ESTC.
? Thom, John (1834-1909), of Airdrie, son of a hosiery manufacturer, worked for an
ironmonger; completed apprenticeship and worked in Wolverhampton, then as
a cashier at Rochsolloch Iron Works, finally ran an ironmongery; pub Wallace and
Other Poems (1873). Ref: Knox, 298-9. [S]
? Thom, Robert William (1816-?1890), of Annan, Dumfriesshire, surgeon’s son,
draper in Blackburn, lived later in Glasgow, pub. Poems (Dudley, ?1860),
Coventry poems (Coventry, ?1860), Dudley poems (Dudley, c. 1865), The courtship
and wedding of Jock o’ the Knowe, and other poems, 2nd edn (Glasgow, 1878), The
epochs: a poem (Glasgow, 1884), Poems (Glasgow, 1880), Poems and ballads (Scotch
and English) (Glasgow, 1886). Ref: ODNB; Edwards, 1, 221-26; Miller, 274-77;
Reilly (1994), 467; Reilly (2000), 458. [S]
Thom, William (?1798-1848), of Aberdeen, ‘The Inverurie Poet’, weaver, later lived in
London and Dundee, patron of J. A. Gordon, pub. ‘The Blind Boy's Pranks’
(1841, first published in the Aberdeen Herald and much syndicated), ‘A Chieftain
Unknown to the Queen,’ The Northern Star, September 1842; Rhymes and
Recollections of a Handloom Weaver (London and Aberdeen, 1844; 2nd 1845). Ref:
LC 5, 139-52; ODNB; Wilson, II, 202-6; Shiach, 36, 67-70; Maidment (1983), 84-5;
Maidment (1987), 22 [image], 32-6, 63-5; Scheckner, 311-12, 343; Vincent, 151;
Ashton & Roberts, ch. 3, 46-57; NCSTC; Miles, III, 249; Murdoch, 81; Zlotnick,
176. [LC 5] [S]
? Thomas, Ann (fl. 1782-95), of Millbrook, Cornwall, naval officer’s widow, pub a
novel and a vol of poems by subscription; the latter is Poems on Various Subjects
(1784). Ref: Backscheider, 410-11; Backscheider & Ingrassia, 888. [F]
? Thomas, David (1759-1822), known as 'Dafydd Ddu Eryri', Welsh poet,
schoolmaster and weaver, won prizes at multiple eisteddfodau under the
auspices of the Gwyneddigion Society (1790, 1791); eventually left the Society
because of ideological differences with William Owen Pugh, lexicographer, and
Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams); established his own literary societies in
Arfon and taught the bardic arts (his students were called Cywion Dafydd Ddu,
‘Dafydd Ddu’s chicks’); published his students’ works along with a selection his
own poetry in Corph y Gaingc (1810); students include William Williams
(“Gwilym Peris’), Griffith Williams (‘Gutyn Peris’), Richard Jones (‘Gwyndaf
Eryri’), Owen Williams (‘Owen Gwyrfai’) and John Roberts (‘Siôn Lleyn). Pub:
Corph y gaingc (1810, 2nd posthumous edn in 1834). Ref: OCLW; ODNB/DNB. [W]
[—Katie Osborn]
Thomas, Ebenezer (Eben Fardd), (1802-63), schoolmaster and grocer, born in
Llanarmon, Caerns. and settled at Clynnog Fawr; son of a weaver, his mother
died in 1821; due to poverty, did not receive an education; “took to a wanton,
drunken life and…lost his religious faith” but eventually returned to the
Calvinist Methodists (1839); gained acclaim when he won the chair at the Powys
Eisteddfod (1824) for an awdl (‘Dinystr Jerusalem’) imitating an epic poem by
Owen Goronwy (qv); won two other chairs at Liverpool in 1840 and at
Llangollen in 1858; pub: Gweithiau Barddonol (c. 1873); Detholion o Ddyddiadur
Eben Fardd (ed. E. G. Millward, 1968). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
? Thomas, Frederick, hatter, pub. Humorous and other poetic pictures: legends and stories
of Devon (London and Plymouth, 1883). Ref: Reilly (1994), 467.
Thomas, George (c. 1791-1872), born at Newtown, Montgomeryshire; owner of a
corn-grinding business in Welshpool, later (1829) settled in Llandysil, Mont. as a
schoolmaster and poet; wrote mainly mock-heroic and satirical verse; pub: The
Otter Hunt and the Death of Roman (1817), The Welsh Flannel (nd), History of the
Chartist and the Bloodless Wars of Montgomeryshire (1840), The Death of Rowton (nd),
The Extinction of the Mormons (nd). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
? Thomason, Mary, (1863-1937), dialect poet, teacher at a Wesleyan primary school in
Leigh, her Warp and Weft: Cuts from a Lancashire Loom pub. posthumously (Leigh
1938). Ref: Hollingworth, 155. [OP] [F]
? Thompson, William Gill (1796-1844), of Newcastle, printer, journalist and poet,
pub. The Coral Wreath and Other Poems (1821). Ref: Welford, III, 514-16.
Thomson, Alex E. (1864-86), of Netherton, Brechin, factory worker, painter and poet.
Ref: Edwards, 7, 353-5. [S]
Thomson, Cecile McNeill, née Sword (fl. 1882), of Ardlissa, Argyllshire; father
moved to Selkirk when she was a child, and leased a small farm; at 17 she
became a dressmaker, but worked also as lady’s maid and nursery governess;
pub. in newspapers and magazines, and a collection,’Tween the Gloamin’ and the
Mirk: Poems and Songs (Aberdeen: A. King and Co.,1882). Her poems, generally
sentimental and descriptive, included the titles ‘Grannie’s Bairn’ and ‘sunset on
Loch Awe.’ Ref: Edwards, 4, 88-93; inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
Thomson, David (1806-70), of Roseneath, Dumbartonshire, shepherd’s son, rural
keeper, pub. Musings among the heather: being poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect, by
the late David Thomson, arranged and edited (Edinburgh. 1881), wrote a poem ‘To
Robert Tennant [qv] (Airdrie’s Postman Poet)’ (Knox, 213). Ref: Edwards, 2, 11217; Knox, 211-17; Reilly (2000), 459. [S]
Thomson, Hope A. (b. 1863), of Bellshill, Lanarkshire, brother of William Thomson
author of ‘Leddy May’, tailor, pub. in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 15, 152-5. [S]
Thomson, Hugh (b. 1847), of Rothesay, iron moulder, letter-carrier, pub. vol of Poems
and Essays, and poems in Edwards. Ref: Edwards, 8, 205-9. [S]
Thom[p]son, James (1763-1832), weaver of Kenleith, pub. Poems in the Scottish Dialect
(Edinburgh, 1801); Poems, chiefly in the Scottish dialect (Leith, 1819); A Poem, chiefly
in the Scottish dialect, on raising and selling the dead ... (Leith, 1821). Ref: Edwards,
15, 315-20; Johnson, items 905-6. [S]
Thomson, James (1827-88), of Bowden, herder then wood turner, poems include
‘Hogmanay’, ‘Hairst’, pub. Doric lays and lyrics (Edinburgh, 1870; 2nd enlarged
edn Glasgow, 1884). Ref: Edwards, 10, 266-73 and 12, xxiii; Douglas, 256-7, 313,
Reilly (2000), 460. [S]
Thomson, James (1832-1914), ‘Earnest’, of Wynd, Dundee, factory worker, ‘lapper to
trade’, humorous and descriptive poet, pub. in local newspapers. Ref: Edwards,
1, 389-90; press cutting of a letter to the editor from his daughter (Mrs) Jessie
Forbes (née Thompson) of Aberdeen, headed ‘A Dundee Song Writer’, paper
unidentified but clearly Scottish and local, letter dated 14 February 1933, loose in
a copy of Edwards, I in the NTU special collection. [S]
? Thomson, James (1834-82), (‘B.V.’) (formerly Thompson), of Port Glasgow,
orphaned son of a merchant ship’s officer and a dressmaker, major poet, author
of The City of Dreadful Night (1880). Ref: ODNB; Edwards, 7, 160-72; Leonard,
281-95; Miles, V, 327; Ricks, 442-56; Reilly (1994), 470; Tom Leonard, Places of the
mind: The Life and Work of James Thomson (‘B.V.’) (London: Cape, 1993). [S]
Thomson, James (b. 1835 [but Edwards gives 1825]), of Rothes, Speyside,
Morayshire, crofter’s son, herder, gardener, pub. The captive chief: a tale of Flodden
Field, and other poems, 2nd edn (Edinburgh, 1871), Northumbria; The captive chief,
and other poems, 3rd edn (Alnwick, 1881). Ref: Edwards, 3, 380-4; Reilly (2000),
460; Murdoch, 260-2. [S]
? Thomson, Margaret Wallace, daughter of a card-cutter and warper. She was
distinguished in academic and musical accomplishments, working first as a
teacher and then after marriage as a church organist. Arguably Thomson should
be considered middle-class, by her own attainments. Ref: Brown, II, 556-62; inf.
Florence Boos. [F] [S]
Thomson, Neil (b. 1823), of Glasgow, ‘The Hyde Park Foundry Man’ tinsmith,
soldier, prison warder, pub. poems in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 9, 388-94. [S]
Thomson, Robert Burns (1817-87), weaver then mill manager, grandson of Robert
Burns, pub. Ref: Edwards, 7, 151-60 and 12, xvi; Leonard, 235. [S]
Thomson, Samuel (1766-1816), of Carngreine, County Antrim, Ulster weaver poet,
schoolmaster, publisher of the United Irishmen publication Northern Star, met
Burns. Ref: LC 3, 261-6; Radcliffe; Carpenter, 482. [I] [LC 3]
Thomson, Thomas (1800-79), of Loanhead, Midlothian, house painter and portraitist,
pub. poems in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 8, 95-98. [S]
Thomson, Thomas (b. 1848), of Edinburgh, compositor, reporter, printer’s reader,
prose writer and critic. Ref: Edwards, 6, 78-82. [S]
Thomson, William (‘Theta’) (1797-1887), of Kennoway, Fife, worked in linen
manufacture, grocer and general merchant, postmaster at Kennoway, pub. Verses
(1866), Poetical recreations (Cupar, 1877). Ref: Edwards, 1, 321-2 and 12, xi; Reilly
(2000), 460. [S]
? Thomson, William (1860-83), of Glasgow, tailor, contributor to newspapers and
periodicals, pub. Leddy May, and other poems (Glasgow, 1883). Ref: Reilly (1994),
471, Edwards, 2, 156-7, 5 (183), 241-53 and 9 (1886), xxv. [S]
Thorpe, Thomas (b. 1829), of Milton, Bowling, Dumbartonshire, block-printer,
warehouseman, pub. poems in magazines. Ref: Edwards, 4, 22-7. [S]
? Threlfall, Jennette (1822-80), daughter of a wine merchant, orphaned, seriously
injured late in life, pub. Sunshine and shadow: poems by Jennette Threlfall, with
introduction (London 1873) Ref: Reilly (2000), 461-2. [F]
Todd, A. B. (b. c. 1824), of Mauchline, Ayrshire, in a family of fifteen of whom six
survived, herder for his father, pub. a vol. in 1846, several other small vols and a
novel in 1815. Ref: Edwards, 1, 130-5. [S]
? Todd, Maggie (b. 1866), of Campertown, Dundee, daughter of farmer and miller
who leased Windy Mill, Murroes; pub. in People’s Journal and a collection,
Burnside Lyrics (Dundee, 1900); poems include ‘The Summer Queen,’ ‘We’re
Scotland’s Bairns Yet,’ ‘The Bonnets o’ Bonnie Dundee,’ ‘My Laddie Days,’ and
are often mildly comic and patriotic. Ref: Edwards, 13, 33-8; inf, Florence Boos.
[F] [S]
Towers, Walter (b. 1841), of Carronshore, Stirlingshire, pattern-maker, songwriter,
pub. Poems, song and ballads (Glasgow, 1885). Ref: Edwards, 8, 345-9; Reilly
(1994), 476. [S]
? Townsend, David (b. 1807), of Kettering, Northants., singer-songwriter and
violinist on the streets of Kettering, pub. The gipsies of Northamptonshire: their
manner of life, festive amusements, and fortune telling, fifty years ago [poems]
(Kettering, 1877), BL; Heroes of Kettering, and other records (Kettering, 1892). Ref:
Reilly (1994), 477, Reilly (2000), 465.
Train, Joseph (1779-1852), of Sorn, Ayrshire, apprentice, militiaman, manufacturing
agent, exciseman; his father was a land steward and later forced to become day
labourer; Train was apprenticed to a weaver but worked for most of his life as an
exciseman and indulging his passion for antiquarian lore, which he collected in
numerous substantial historical volumes (with mixed financial success). He
corresponded frequently with Walter Scott and helped to secure items for Scott's
museum; Scott, in turn, tried to support Train as he could and invited him for
multiple visits to Edinburgh. Pub. Poetical Reveries (1806), Strains of the Mountain
(Ballantyne, 1814), and other works including historical writings. Ref: ODNB;
Wilson, II, 30-32, Johnson 46, no. 334. [S]
Turnbull, Gavin (c. 1765 to c. 1816), of Hawick, Kilmarnock, poet and actor, weaver,
friend of Alexander Wilson, ornithologist (qv), friends with and supported by
David Sillar (qv) and Robert Burns (qv) (Burns wrote, 'Possibly, as he is an old
friend of mine, I may be prejudiced in his favour: but I like some of his pieces
very much’ [ODNB]), poem subscriptions advertised in American publications
though the volumes seem not to have been completed, pub. Poetical Essays
(Glasgow, 1788, BL 1466.d.26), Poems (1794, BL 11632.b.53). Ref: ODNB;
Radcliffe; Eyre-Todd. [S]
Turner, George (1805-86), of Dumfermline, tailor, soldier, abstinence advocate. Ref:
Edwards, 5, 261-4. [S]
Tweedale, Robert (b. 1832), of Ballymoney, Country Down, Johnstone and Paisley,
shoemaker, son of an Irish agricultural labourer, author of ‘Co-Operation: The
Brotherhood of Man’ in Brown, II, 355-7. Ref: Brown, II, 354-58; Leonard, 334-6.
[I] [S]
? Tyre, John (b. 1824), of Paisley, pattern-designer, poems in Brown. Ref: Brown, II,
193-97. [S]
Usher, John (1810-29), Lammermoor sheep-herder, attended Edinburgh University
of become a minister, but died before he had qualified, author of ‘Lammermoor’,
pub. in Crockett. Ref: Crockett, 208-9. [S]
? Varley, Isabella, later Banks (1821-97), also known by her husband's name as 'Mrs.
G. Linneaus Banks' (qv), member of the Lancashire Literary Association (formed
from the ‘Sun Inn’ group of Manchester poets), novelist and poet, received
numerous grants from the Royal Literary Fund, author of The Manchester Man, a
popular novel. Her father, James Varley, was a chemist and amateur
artist. When she was a child, a smoky chimney damaged her eyesight. The
Manchester Guardian published Isabella’s poem, A Dying Girl to Her Mother,
when she was sixteen, and her collection of poetry entitled Ivy Leaves was
published in 1843. Prior to her marriage to the journalist and poet George
Linnaeus Banks in 1846, Isabella was forced to support herself running a school
at Cheetham in Lancashire following a lawsuit in which her father lost £10,000
over a bleaching process he had invented. As a result of George's various job
changes, the couple led quite an itinerant life, with three of their children being
born in locations as disparate as Dublin, Durham and Windsor. Isabella
contributed regular articles to the newspapers that George edited. As a member
of the Ladies Committee of the Anti-Corn Law League, Isabella campaigned
successfully for the repeal of laws embodying an impediment to
industrialisation and free trade. Isabella’s second volume of poems, Daisies in the
Grass (1865) – containing many poems on the theme of a woman’s difficult
position in marriage – was published in the same year as her first novel, God’ s
Providence House. Despite the onset of chronic ill-health, Isabella persisted to
write novels and became known as "The Lancashire Novelist". She is most noted
for her 1876 work of “industrial fiction”, The Manchester Man, first serialised in
Cassel’s Magazine, and seen as presenting “a vivid picture of Manchester in the
19th century; a time when men from humble backgrounds could make vast
fortunes through mercantile activity”. At the time of the 1891 census she was
still living with her daughter, Esther, a dressmaker. Isabella Varley Banks died
in Hackney in 1897. Pub: Ivy Leaves (poetry, 1843); God's Providence House, (novel,
1865), Daisies in the Grass (poetry, 1865), Stung to the Quick, A North Country Story
(novel, 1867), The Manchester Man, (novel, serialised in Cassel's Magazine,
published 1876 in full), Forbidden to Marry (novel, 1883), Bond Slaves (novel,
1893). Ref: ODNB; Harland, 300, 364-5, 433-4, 448-9, 484-5, Vicinus (1974), 160.
See online resources:
[http://www.manchesteronline.co.uk/ewm/mp/lbanks.html],
[http://www.geocities.com/helenvict0r/Banks.html]. [F] [-Iain Rowley]
Vaughan, Thomas (‘The Hereford Poet’) (1813-63), tailor, of Hereford, pub. Morah; or
the Indian wife: a moral tale; also, Songs and ballads; and, The apparition: a tale of
Hereford, founded upon fact (Hereford, 1863). Ref: Reilly (2000), 474.
? Vedder, David (bap. 1789-1854), of Burness [Deerness], Orkney, orphan, cabin boy,
ship’s captain, prolific magazine and anthology contributor. Pub. The
Covenanter’s Communion and Other Poems (1826), Orcadian Sketches [prose and
verse] (1832), Poems—Legendary, Lyrical and Descriptive (1842), and others,
including a memoir of Walter Scott (1832). Ref: ODNB; Wilson, II, 117-21. [S]
? Verney, Thomas, author of A copy of verses humbly presented to all my worthy masters
and mistresses in the ward of Castle-Baynard, by Thomas Verney, Bell-man (1742), BL
1870.d.1(64). Ref: ESTC.
? Vernon, Henry, of Alnwick, Northumberland, pub. Thoughts of leisure hours: poems,
songs &c. &c. (Edinburgh: Commercial Printing Company, 1871). Ref: Reilly
(2000), 475; Charles Cox, Catalogue 53, item 271.
Vernon, James, of London, Chartist, worker-poet, pub. in The Northern Star and in
separate booklets, including The Afflicted Muse (South Molton, n.p.). Ref:
Kovalev, 99; Scheckner, 313, 343.
Vernon, William, author of ‘A Journey into Wales’, Gents. Mag. May 1757; Poems on
Several Occasions by William Vernon, a Private Soldier in the Buffs (1758: BL
11642.de.27). Ref: LC 2, 97-114; Radcliffe; Gents. Mag., May 1757; Poole &
Markland, 109-11. [LC 2]
Waddell, James (fl. 1809), shoemaker ‘poet laureate of Plessy and the neighbouring
villages’, pub. The Poetical Works of James Waddell (Morpeth, 1809). Ref: Iolo A.
Williams, By-Ways Round Helicon: A Kind of Anthology (London: Heinemann,
1922), 137.
Waddington, James (1829-61), b. Horton, near Bradford, lived at Saltaire, wool-sorter,
?power-loom weaver, author of Flowers of the glen: the poetical remains of James
Waddington, ed. by Eliza Craven Green (Bradford, 1862). Ref: Maidment (1987),
187, 196-7; Vicinus (1974), 161, 171, Reilly (2000), 479.
Wakefield, George (1821-88), of Uttoxeter, carpenter’s son, shoemaker, railway night
watchman and porter at Uttoxeter station, pub. Poems on various subjects (1854);
The River Dove and Human Life Compared (1856). Ref: Poole & Markland,173-5.
Walker, J. Bradshaw, ‘working man’, pub. Way-Side Flowers; or, Poems, Lyrical and
Descriptive (Leeds, 1840). Ref: Charles Cox (bookseller), Catalogue 51 (2005), item
282.
Walker, John, of Liverpool, shoemaker poet, pub. A Descriptive Poem On The Town
And Trade Of Liverpool (1789). Ref: LC 3, 143-52; Harvey; Johnson, item 932, may
possibly also refer. [LC 3]
Walker, John (b. c. 1747), farm labourer, pub. Poems in English, Scotch and Gaelic
(Glasgow, 1817). Ref: Johnson, item 931. [S]
Walker, John (b. 1845), of Blackburn, son of a working-man, largely self-taught,
pupil-teacher, warehouseman, journalist. Ref: Hull, 272-87.
Walker, John (b. 1857), of Rothesay, Glasgow factory worker, artist. Ref: Edwards, 10,
102-9. [S]
Walker, John (1861-1932), of Wythburn, Thirlmere, Cumberland, worked in wool
manufacture from an early age, wrote for newspapers, pub. Hubert and Emmeline:
poems on nature, and other poems (Edinburgh, 1887). Ref: Reilly (1994), 493.
Walker, Samuel, of Shaneshill (1803-85), contributed poems to Belfast journals but
never had a separate collection. Ref. Hewitt. [I]
Walker, William, ‘Bill Stumps’ (b. 1830), cattle-herder, quarryman, pub. poems in the
People’s Journal. Ref: Edwards, 3, 102-6. [S]
Wall, John, late nineteenth-century Bristol shoemaker poet. Ref: inf. Madge Dresser,
UWE.
? Wallace, Alexander (b. 1816), of Paisley, draw boy, weaver’s apprentice, later
university educated temperance writer and preacher, pub. Poems and sketches
(Glasgow, London and Edinburgh, 1862). Ref: Reilly (2000), 482. [S]
Wallace, Andrew (b. 1835), of Leslie, Fife, son of stonemason, clerk, emigrated to
Canada, returned to Scotland, railway cashier, inspector of the poor, pub. Essays,
sketches and poems (London and Glasgow, 1869). Ref: Reilly (2000), 482. [S]
Wallace, Edgar (Richard Horatio) (1875-1932), of Greenwich, orphan, raised by the
family of a Billingsgate fish-porter, began writing career while in the army as a
private soldier, became the Daily Mail's war correspondent (1900), pub. The
Mission that failed: a tale of the raid, & other poems (Cape Town, 1898), and
numerous prose thrillers. Ref: ODNB; Reilly (1994), 495.
Wallace, George (b. 1845), ‘The Spring Poet’, cooper, soft-goods manufacturer. Ref:
Edwards, 14, 354-8. [S]
? Wallace, William (b. 1862), of Edinburgh, later Glasgow, clerk at 13, telegraph
messenger, porter. Ref: Edwards, 7, 202-4. [S]
Waller, John Rowell (b. 1854), of Cragg Head, County Durham, joiner, ironmonger,
engineering worker, lived at Wallsend, pub. Unstrung links: dropped from the
disjointed chain of a toiling life, as the ringing chorus of nature’s music beat time on the
anvil of a responding heart (Darlington, 1878); Ramblings and Musings (1886);
Wayside Flowers: being, The Battle of Otterburn and other poems (Bedlington, 1881);
Woodland and shingle: poems and songs (Darlington, 1883), and other volumes. Ref:
Reilly (2000), 483; Reilly (1994), 495; Newcastle Lit & Phil Library.
Walmesley, Luke Slater (b. 1841), of Blackburn, son of a factory ‘tackler’, schoolmate
of Henry Yates, member of the Billington circle of poets, and of the Mechanics’s
Institute. Ref: Hull, 238-45.
Walter, Rowland (‘Ionoron Glan Dwyryd’) (1819-84), native of Blaeneau Ffestiniog,
Mer., quarryman, emigrated to USA in 1852; pub: Lloffion y Gweithiwr (1852,
Wales), Caniadau Ionoron (1872, Utica). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
Walsh, John (b. 1848), of Blackburn, printer’s devil, weaver, dialect and local poet.
Ref: Hull, 302-14; biography, photograph and selection of poems online at:
http://gerald-massey.org.uk/hull/c_blackburn_8.htm.
Walton, Ann (fl. 1810), ‘cottage girl poet’, of Harlestone, Northamptonshire, pub.
Original Pieces on Different Subjects, Chiefly in Verse (Harleston, Northants, c. 1810).
Hold locates a copy in Local Studies at Northants Central Library, but it is not
listed on COPAC or Northants Library Catalogue; nothing via Google or Google
Books. Ref: Hold, 143-5. [F]
? Wanless, Andrew (b. 1824), of Longformacus, Lammermoor, bookbinder,
emigrated to Canada, pub. several vols of poetry and Sketches and Anecdotes
(1891), dubbed the ‘Burns of the United States’. Ref: Ross, 125-35; Crockett, 22836. [S]
Ward, Edward, ‘Ned’ (1667-1740), probably born in the English Midlands to poor
parents though he claimed endowed Leicestershire relatives, popular writer and
(among many other roles) publican poet; pub. The Poet's Ramble after Riches (in
'Hudibrastic verse'; London, 1691); many satirical poems, volumes and
pamphlets, and other surviving prose works. Ref: ODNB; LC 1, 1-32; Christmas,
67. [LC 1]
? Ward, John (fl. 1642-3), puritan trooper poet. Refs to seek. [OP]
Ward, Richard (b. 1863), of Paisley, miner, emigrated to America but returned to
Paisley, pub. pieces in papers. Ref: Brown, II, 507-11. [S]
Wardrop, Alexander (b. 1850), of Whitburn, Linlithgowshire, weaver’s son, tailor,
pub. Johnnie Mathison’s courtship and marriage with, Poems and songs (Coatbridge,
1881), Mid-Cauther Fair: a dramatic pastoral, with other poems, songs, and prose
sketches (Glasgow, 1887); Robin Tamson’s Hamely Sketches (Glasgow nd. c. 1902).
Ref: Edwards, 4, 81-4; Bisset, 226-36; Reilly (1994), 498. [S]
Waters, Daniel (b. 1838), of Wick, house painter, pub. in Glasgow magazines. Ref:
Edwards, 2, 253-6. [S]
? Watkins, John (fl . c. 1786-1831), popular Chartist poet and lecturer, translator,
poems included ‘The Golden Age’. Ref: ODNB; Kovalev, 82-6; Scheckner, 314-17,
344.
Watson, Alexander (1744-1831), of Aberdeen, tailor, author of ‘The Kail Brose of Auld
Scotland’ and ‘The Wee Wifukie’; pub. The anti-Jacobin, a hudibrastic poem in
twenty-one cantos (Edinburgh, 1794). Ref: ESTC; Eyre-Todd, 46. [S]
Watson, George (b. 1846) of Dundee, rope-spinner (‘The Roper Bard’), pub. Love’s
task: poems and songs, 2nd ser (Dundee, 1899). Ref: Edwards, 14, 36-41; Reilly
(1994), 501. [S]
? Watson, Jean L. (d. 1885), of Peebleshire, brought up on a farm, mother died when
she was seven, wrote epitomes of Scottish lives, including Hugh Miller (qv), pub.
numerous volumes of fiction and non-fiction prose and verse, lived in
Edinburgh. Ref: Edwards, 4, 126-31. [F] [S]
Watson, Jessie J. Simpson (b. 1854), of Greenock, miller’s daughter; poems include
‘We’re A’ Weel At Hame,’ ‘Dune Wi’ Time,’ and ‘Come Wi’ Me, Bessie’. Ref:
Edwards, 3, 262-5, inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
? Watson, John (1793-1878), of Fearn, near Brechin, farmer and poet, wrote
agricultural reports for magazines and newspapers, pub. Samples in common
sense, in verse, by a Forfarshire farmer (Brechin, 1875) [poems]. Ref: Edwards, 1, 3840; Shanks, 156-8, Reilly (2000), 486 [S]
? Watson, John (b. 1856), of Longside, Aberdeenshire, railway clerk. Ref: Edwards, 1,
291. [S]
Watson, Richard (1833-1918), lead miner’s son, of Middleton-in-Teesdale, iron ore
miner, pub. Poems (1862), revised and expanded 1884 (Poetical Works), reprinted
1930, Egremont Castle, and miscellaneous poems (Whitehaven, 1868); Rhymes of a
Rustic Bard: The Poems and Songs of Richard Watson (Barnard Castle: The Teesdale
Mercury, 1979); this edition adds the substantial ‘Middleton-in-Teesdale Fair’.
Ref: LC 6, 33-54; Reilly (2000), 486; Reilly (1994), 501; James McTaggart, Around
the Hollow Hills [biography of Watson] (Barnard Castle: Teesdale Mercury, 1978).
[LC 6]
Watson, Thomas, gardener of Lasswade, Midlothian, pub. A Collection of Poems
(Edinburgh, 1835). Ref: ?Wilson, II, 540. [S]
Watson, Thomas (1807-75), b. Arbroath, Angus, worked as a weaver then became a
house painter, contributed to many Scottish periodicals, pub. Homely pearls at
random strung: poems, songs, and sketches (Edinburgh and Arbroath, 1873). Ref:
Reilly (2000), 487, Edwards, 2, 220-4. [S]
Watson, Walter (1780-1854), of Chryston, Lanarkshire, cowherd, soldier, weaver,
pub. vols of poems and songs in 1808, 1823, 1843, Poems and Songs, Chiefly in the
Scottish Dialect (1853); selected works with a memoir by Hugh McDonald
(?1853). Ref: ODNB; Glasgow Poets, 164-67; Macleod, 267-69; Wilson, II, 33-5. [S]
Watson, William (fl. 1820-40), of Newcastle upon Tyne, author of the songs ‘Dance to
thy Daddy’, ‘Thumping luck to yon Town’, ‘Newcassel Races’ and ‘Newcastle
Landlords 1834’. Ref: Allan, 204-14.
Watt, Alexander (b. 1841), of East Kilbride, weaver, slater, day-labourer, from a
family of rhymers, pub. in local press, including prize poem on Janet Hamilton.
Ref: Murdoch, 366-9; Edwards, 3, 136-41. [S]
Watt, James E. (b. 1839), of Montrose, weaver, pub. Poetical sketches of Scottish life and
character (Dundee, 1880). Ref: Edwards 1, 73-77; Reilly (1994), 503, Murdoch, 31620. [S]
Watt, Walter (b. 1826), of Edinburgh, later of Glasgow, tobacco-spinner, violinmaker, pub. Sketches in prose and poetry (Glasgow, 1881); The art of violin making
[prose work] (1892). Ref: Reilly (1994), 503; Bisset, 145-50; Edwards, 8, 225-30 [S]
Watt, William (1792-1859), ‘peasant poet and precentor’ (Edwards), of West Linton,
Peebleshire, herder, weaver, singer, pub. vol. of songs in 1835, and Comus and
Cupid (1844); Poems on Sacred and Other Subjects (1860). Ref: inf. Kaye Kossick;
Edwards, 2, 51-5, Murdoch, 144-6. [S]
Watts, John George, of London, Billingsgate fish market porter, pub. Fun, feeling, and
fancy: being a series of lays and lyrics (London, 1861), The blacksmith‘s daughter, and
other poems (London, 1874), A lay of a Cannibal Island And other Poems, Gay and
grave (London: Judd and Co. Ltd, 1887). Ref: Reilly (2000), 487; Reilly (1994), 503.
Watts, Thomas (1845-87), of Wexford, tailor, pub. Woodland echoes (Kelso, 1880). Ref:
Edwards, 3, 70-76 and 12, xxi-xxii; Crockett, 190-7; Reilly (1994), 504. [I] [S]
Waugh, Edwin (1817-90), hugely successful Lancashire dialect poet, son of a
Rochdale shoemaker, pub. A Ramble from Bury to Rochdale (Manchester, 1853),
Sketches of Lancashire Life and Localities (Manchester, 1855), Come whoam to thy
Childer an me (Manchester, 1856), Chirrup [a song] (Manchester, 1858), Poems and
Lancashire Songs (Manchester, 1859), Over the Sands to the Lakes (Manchester,
1860), The Birtle Carter’s tale about Owd Bodle (Manchester, 1861), The Goblin’s
Grave (Manchester, 1861), Rambles in the Lake Country and Its Borders (Manchester,
1861), Lancashire Songs (Manchester, 1863), Fourteen days in Scotland...
(Manchester, 1864), Tufts of Heather, from the Lancashire Moors (Manchester, 1864),
Besom Ben (Manchester, 1865), The Owd Bodle (Manchester, 1865), What ails theo,
my son Robin (Manchester, 1865), Ben an’ th’ Bantam (Manchester, 1866), Poesies
from a Country Garden: selections from the works, 2 vols (Manchester, 1866), Prince’s
Theatre...The Grand Christmas Pantomime (Manchester, 1866), The Birthplace of Tim
Bobbin (Mancester, 1867), Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk During the Cotton
Famine (Manchester, 1867), The Owd Blanket (Manchester, 1867), Dules-gate; or a
Frish through Lancashire Clough (Manchester, 1868), Sneck-Bant; or th’ owd Tow Bar
(Manchester, 1868), A Guide to Castletown... (Manchester, 1869), Irish Sketches
(Manchester, 1869), Johnny O’Wobbler’s an’ th’ Two Wheeled Dragon (Manchester,
1869), Lancashire Sketches (Manchester, 1869), An Old Nest (Manchester, 1869),
Snowed-up (Manchester, 1869), Rambles and Reveries (Manchester, 1872), Jarnock
(or, the Bold Trencherman) (Manchester, 1873), The Old Coal Men (Manchester,
1873), Old cronies, or Wassail in a country inn (Manchester, 1875), The Hermit
Cobbler (Manchester, 1878), Around the Yule Log (Manchester, 1879), In the Lake
Country (Manchester, 1880), Waugh’s Complete Works, 10 vols. (Manchester, 1881),
Fireside Tales (Manchester, 1885), The Chimney Corner (Manchester, 1892). Ref: LC
5, 315-30; ODNB; Harland, 316-17, 328-9, 343-4, 372-4, 408-10, 503-4, 529-33;
Ashraf (1978), I, 26; Cross, 161-3; Vicinus (1973), 750-3; Vicinus (1974), 167, 189;
Maidment (1987), 249-53, 350-2, 366-8; Hollingworth, 155 [has b/w photograph];
Zlotnick, 196-207; Goodridge (1999), item 124; Miles, X, vi; Reilly (2000), 487-8;
Reilly (1994), 504-5. [LC 5]
Webb, John (‘Kenrick Prescott’), weaver of Haverhill, Suffolk, pub. Mildenhall (1771),
Poems (1772), Haverhill, a Descriptive Poem and Other Poems (London: printed for
the author and sold by J. Nunn, 1810), xxiv, 119, includes subscription list with
numerous local residents, and is described as ‘poems by a journeyman weaver,
born in the vale of obscurity...The poem is in the form of a narrative saga, with
numerous direct or oblique References to local people, places, and events. As
poetry it probably has little merit: as an illustration of working-class
emancipation it may have rather more’ (John Drury Rare Books catalogue 104,
2000-2001, item 149). Haverhill, a long locodescriptive poem, dedicates several
pages to memorialising Webb's friend James Chambers (qv). Ref: NCSTC, NLS,
BL, Bod, Cranbrook, 243.
? Webbe [Webb], Cornelius Francis (1789-1858), sometimes referred to by
contemporaries as 'Corny' Webb, of Holborn, London, press proof-reader, friend
of Keats, pub. poems in the Quarterly Review and New Monthly Magazine, as well
as volumes Summer; An Invocation to Sleep: Fairy revels; and Songs and Sonnets
(London, 1821); Sonnets, Amatory, Incidental, and Descriptive, with other Poems
(1820); Lyric Leaves (1832). He later published successful essay collections and
other prose works. Ref: ODNB; Cross, 133; Radcliffe.
Webber, James B, of Melrose, pub. Rambles around the Eildons (Hawick, 1883, 2nd edn
1895). Ref: Reilly (1994), 506. [S]
? Webber, John L. (‘The Dartmoor Poet’), pub. Poems on Widecombe-in-the-Moor and
neighbourhood (Devonport, c. 1876). Ref: Reilly (2000), 488.
? Webster, Ann, blind poet, pub. Solitary Musings (London, 1825), [BL 11642.bb.8].
Ref: MacDonald Shaw, 95-6; Jackson (1993), 363. [F]
Webster, David (1787-1837), of Paisley, weaver, pub. an Ode to the memory of Tannahill
(1828); Original Scottish Poems; Humorous and Satirical (Paisley, 1824), Original
Scottish Rhymes with Humorous and Satirical Songs (Paisley, 1835), pamphlet: An
Address to Fame, or Hints on the Improvement of Weaving, newspaper pubs. Ref:
Brown, I, 181-88; Wilson, II, 540-41; Douglas, 304; Leonard, 92-102; NCSTC. [S]
Webster, George (b. 1846), of Stuartfield, Aberdeenshire, herd lad, ploughman. Ref:
Edwards, 10, 327-31. [S]
Wedderburn, Alexander (1836), of Aberdeenshire, farm labourer, ?shoemaker, pub.
in the anthology, Poems by the People. Ref: Edwards, 6, 238-41. [S]
Weekes, James Eyre (fl. 1745-56), shoemaker poet, of Dublin, pub. Poems on Several
Occasions (Dublin, 1743), The Cobler’s Poem. To A Certain Noble Peer, Occasioned by
the Bricklayer’s Poem (Dublin, 1745), The Resurrection (Dublin, 1745), The amazon,
or female courage vindicated (Dublin, 1745), Rebellion. A poem (Dublin, 1745), A
Rhapsody on the stage or, the art of playing. In imitation of Horace’s Art of Poetry
(1746), The gentlemen’s hourglass, or an introduction to chronology (1750), A new
geography of Ireland (1752), The Young Grammarian’s Magazine of Words (1753),
Solomon’s Temple, an oratorio (1753). Ref: LC 2, 41-8; Christmas, 134-6. [LC 2] [I]
Weir, Daniel (1796-1831), of Greenock, of humble parentage and limited education,
bookseller, pub. poems in his edited collections The National Minstrel, The Sacred
Lyre and Lyrical Gems. Ref: Wilson, II, 155-7. [S]
? Welsh, James C. (1880-1954), coalminer, born in the mining village of Haywood,
Lanarkshire, as the fourth child of a fairly large family. At the time in which he
began attending school, the Welsh household’s struggle against poverty was felt
most keenly. Recalling that he would marvel at his mother’s fortitude, Welsh
later wrote, in his introduction to Songs of a Miner: ‘I never cease to feel that there
is an insane ordering of temporal things, which condemns the women of the
class to which I belong to unreasonable and unnecessary suffering’. He proceeds
to extol those working-class women who begot a generation of miners: ‘Women
who can give the world sons like these have virtues worth immortalizing’. After
leaving school at eleven, Welsh went on to labour in the mines at every phase of
coal getting up until around 1915, when he was appointed checkweigher.
Although Welsh admits that life in the pit was ‘irksome’, he states that it was ‘by
no means destitute of joy’, particularly as it allowed him to explore an interest in
Trade Union affairs. He went on to work closely with Glasgow socialists in the
Independent Labour Party and was elected to the House of Commons for
Coatbridge in the 1922. General Election. Since early life, Welsh harboured
dreams of being a writer – ‘when I wanted to express a certain mood I knew no
peace until it was on paper’ – and with the singular encouragement of Mr J.
Harrison Maxwell, a Glasgow teacher, and his wife, published Songs of a Miner
in 1917. Resisting the dominant literary world’s labeling of him as a ‘miner poet’,
Welsh affirms in his introduction: ‘“Ploughmen poets”, “navy poets”, “miner
poets” appeal only to the superficialities of life. The poet aims at its
elementals’. In any case, a critic in The New Age (May 9, 1919) responded: ‘After
reading Mr Welsh’s verses, I join with him in wondering why his occupation is
mentioned at all. Except possibly for two poems, this volume might have been
written by a stockbroker or a chimney-sweep… his verses are not distinctive in
any way’. More recently, Pamela Fox (1994. p2) writes: ‘Inscribed with a range of
anxious gestures, they proudly claim, and just as insistently deny, their own
class specificity’. In 1920, Welsh published a successful socialist coalfields novel,
The Underworld: The Story of Robert Sinclair, Miner. It is recognised by The Cornhill
Magazine as the book that brought Welsh into the public eye, ‘a very moving
story… probably the most vivid tale of a Trade Unionist’s life since Mary Barton’.
Pub. Songs of A Miner (1917) London: Hervert Jenkins; The Underworld: The Story
of Robert Sinclair, Miner (1920) New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company
Publishers (e-book available online at:
[http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=176349&pageno=1])
Ref: http://www.grian.demon.co.uk; Fox, P (1994) Class Fictions – C: Shame and
Resistance in the British Working-Class Novel, 1890-1945. Duke University Press;
The Cornhill Magazine (1860); The New Age, Vol 23, No.2, May 9, 1919 (all online
at Google Books). [OP] [-Iain Rowley]
? Welsh, William, Peebleshire cottar of Romanno Bridge, pub. Poetical and prose works,
new enlarged edition (Edinburgh, 1856, 3rd edn Edinburgh, 1875). Ref: Reilly
(2000), 489. [S]
? West, Jane (née Iliffe) (1758-1852), of London, moved to Desborough,
Northamptonshire, farmer’s wife, self-taught poet, patronised by Percy, wrote
novels, poetry, children's literature, and conduct tracts. Pub. Miscellaneous Poetry,
Written at an Early Period of Life (London, 1786); The Humours of Brighthelmstone: a
Poem (1788); Miscellaneous Poems and a Tragedy [‘Edmund’] (1791); An Elegy on the
Death of the Right Honourable Edmund Burke (1797); Poems and Plays (vols. 1 and 2,
1799; 3 and 4, 1805); and The Mother: a Poem in Five Books (1799). She also wrote
numerous novels, including The Advantages of Education (1793, under the
pseudonym 'Prudentia Homespun') and her most popular work, A Gossip's Story
(1796). Ref: ODNB; Radcliffe; Hold, 152-54; Rizzo, 243, Jackson, 364-5, Lonsdale
(1989), 379-85; Backscheider & Ingrassia, 889. [F]
? Westbury, Eliza (1808-28), of Hackleton, Northamptonshire, Hymns; by a
Northamptonshire village female. To which is added, a short account of her life
(Northampton, 1828). Johnson, item 957. [F]
? Westray, C., Chartist poet. Ref: Kovalev, 100-1; Scheckner, 318-19.
Westwood, James (b. 1850), of Alloa, piecer (weaver), pub. ?a volume (nothing on
COPAC or Google books). Ref: Edwards, 8, 258-63. [S]
Whalley, Robert West (b. 1848), of Blackburn, weaver from age 10, overlooker, local
and dialect poet. Ref: Hull, 290-302.
Wheatley, Phillis (1753?-1784), of Boston, MA, African-American slave, author of
Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral (1773; Dobell 2004-5). Ref: ODNB;
Gents. Mag. XLIII (1773) 226; Lonsdale (1984), 616, 851; ESTC; TLS, 13 June 1986,
649; Dobell, Jackson (1993), 366-9; Basker, 170-82; Vincent Carretta, ‘Phillis
Wheatley’s First Effort’, PMLA, 125, no. 3 (May 2010), 795–97. [F]
Wheeler, James (c. 1718-88), labouring man, pub. The Rose of Sharon: a Poem by
James Wheeler, a Labouring Man (London, 1795), a ‘dire volume’ posthumously
published to raise money for widow. Ref: LC 3, 177-8. [LC 3]
Wheeler, Thomas Martin, of London, woolcomber, Chartist, poet and novelist. Ref:
Ashraf 919787), I, 25; Kovalev, 102-3, Scheckner, 320-1, 344-5.
Whitaker, William (fl. 1870-82), of Blackburn, painter, dialect and local poet. Ref:
Hull, 205-13.
White, George (1764-1836), former slave turned Methodist preacher, became literate
at age 42; pub. a narrative of his life in 1810 that includes poetry. Ref: Basker,
687-8.
White, Henry Kirke (1785-1806), Nottingham butcher’s son, famous as a tragic
prodigy, won two prizes from the Monthly Preceptor (1800) and wrote regularly
for the Monthly Mirror, became ill and died while at Cambridge. Pub. Clifton
Grove, a Sketch in Verse, with other Poems (1803) and a posthumous collected works
by Southey for the benefit of his family (The Remains of Henry Kirke White...with an
Account of his Life, 2 vols, 1807; eventually went to ten editions, including two in
America). Ref: ODNB; Unwin, 118-19, Maidment (1983), 84, Richardson, 257-8,
Goodridge (1999), item 125, Vincent, 145-7; Miles, X, 81; Basker, 625.
White, Isabella (fl. 1869), of Laurencekirk, powerloom weaver, published The Lovers
of the Mountain and Other Poems (Brechin: Printed by D. Burns, Advertiser Office,
1869). The prefatory material offers her sincere thanks to ladies and gentlemen
who have encouraged her to publish. Her volume contains romantic ballads,
such as ‘On Cluny Castle, Invernesshire,’ and other verses, among them ‘On
Laurencekirk—The Birthplace of the Authoress,’ which briefly describes her
childhood. Ref: inf. Florence Boos. [F] [S]
White, John (b. 1859), of Whitburn, tailor, violinist, comic songwriter, poems in
Bisset. Ref: Bisset, 268-70. [S]
? White, Robert (1802-74), farmer’s son of Roxburghshire, poet and antiquarian, pub.
The Wind. A Poem (1853), England. A Poem (1856); his prose ‘Autobiographical
Notes’ were published in a limited edition in 1966 (Newcastle upon Tyne: Eagle
Press, the University Library). Ref: ODNB; ilson, II, 257-60, Welford, III, 604-9.
(Johnson, item 962 may relate.) [S]
? White, Walter (1811-93), of Reading, upholsterer, librarian and writer, emigrated to
America (New York and Poughkeepsie) but returned in 1839, then moved to
London and became a librarian at the Royal Society. Pub. The prisoner and his
dream: a ballad (?1885). Ref: ODNB; Reilly (1994), 510.
Whitehead, Harry Buckley (1890-1966), of Diggle, Oldham, dialect poet, millworker
from age 13 to retirement, pub. Rhymes of a Village Poet (1963). Ref: Hollingworth,
156. [OP]
Whitehead, John (1797-1879), of Duns, shoemaker, pub. in the newspapers. Ref:
Crockett, 131-2. [S]
? Whitelaw, James (1840-87), of Dundee, compositor, sub-editor of the People’s Friend.
Ref: Edwards, 11, 256-62. [S]
Whitmore, William (fl. 1850-59), Chartist poet, housepainter and friend of William
Jones, correspondent of Leatherland (q.v.), published poems in Cooper’s Journal
(1850) and Firstlings, a collection of his verse appeared in 1852 (London: John
Chapman). Through his friendship with John Roebuck, a member of the London
Working Men’s College, his work was brought to the note of Tom Hughes, who
sponsored the publication of a further selection of his verse in 1859 under the
title Gilbert Marlowe and other poems, with a preface by the author of ‘Tom Brown's
school days’ (Cambridge: Macmillan, 1859). Ref: Ashton & Roberts, 62; Star Of
Freedom, 7 August 1852, 3; inf. from contributor. [—Ned Newitt]
? Whittell, Thomas (1683-1736), of Northumberland, ‘The Northumbrian poet’, ‘The
Licentious Poet’, miller and humorous poet, pub. The Midford Galloway
(Newcastle?, 1790?); Poetical Works (1815). Ref: ESTC; Welford, III, 613-15.
Whittett, Robert (b. 1829), of Perth, worked in Aberdeen and Edinburgh as a printer,
returned to Perth then emigrated, in 1869 purchasing a plantation in Virginia to
set up in business, became senior partner in a publishing firm; pub. The Brighter
Side of Suffering and Other Poems (1882). Ref: Ross, 110-16. [S]
Wickenden, William S., farm labourer of Etloe in the Forest of Dean, ‘The Bard of the
Forest’, ‘as little blessed by education a fortune’, friend and neighbour of
Edward Jenner, poet and novelist, pub. Count Glarus, of Switzerland. Interspersed
with some Pieces of Poetry (Gloucester, 1819), Bleddyn: a Welch national tale
(London: Baldwin, Cradock and Joy, 1821, two edns), Prose and poetry of the Bard
of the Forest (Cambridge: Harwood & Hall, 1825). Ref: James Burmester
Catalogue 47, items 168-9, 254; inf. Bob Heyes.
? Wight, William, Cottage Poems (Edinburgh: James Ballantyne & Co, 1820). Ref:
Jackson (1985); information of Bob Heyes. [S]
? Wightman, Margaret Theresa, born in Ireland, lived in Dundee, mantle and
millinery shopworker, pub. The Faithful Shepherd, and other poems (Edinburgh and
Glasgow, 1876). Her poems are accomplished; several praise a Dundee pastor
and one is about ‘The Factory Girl.’ Ref: Reilly (2000), 495; Boos (2008), 22; inf.
Florence Boos. [F] [I] [S]
? Wildman, Abraham, mentioned by Ashraf, nothing further known. Ref: Ashraf
(1978), I, 37.
Will, Charles (b. 1861), of Methlie, Aberdeenshire, asylum attendant, police officer,
pub. in newspapers. Ref: Edwards, 9, 365-8. [S]
Williams, (Owen) Alfred (1877-1930), born in South Marston, near Swindon,
Wiltshire, railway factory worker, self-taught folklorist and poet, wrote about
rural and industrial life. Pub. Songs in Wiltshire (1909), Poems in Wiltshire (1911),
Nature and other Poems (1912), Cor Cordium (1913), Selected Poems (1926), and the
prose works Life in a Railway Factory (1915) Folk Songs of the Upper Thames (1923),
and Tales from the Panchatantra (1931). Ref: ODNB; Unwin, 165-89. Link:
http://www.alfredwilliams.org.uk/ [OP]
? Williams, Anna (1706-83), blind poet, born at Rosemarket, Pembs. but moved to
London at age twenty-one and spent the rest of her life there; in 1727, her father
moved into the Charterhouse, a school and almshouse for gentlemen under
financial duress, though it is unclear if he was a supporter or a dependent;
Williams became blind after an operation on her eyes in 1752; she was acclaimed
and supported by Samuel Johnson, who helped her with Miscellanies in Prose and
Verse (1766). Also included in Gramich and Brennan’s modern anthology, Welsh
Women’s Poetry (2003). Ref: OCLW; Gramich and Brennan, 60-63, 395. [W] [F] [—
Katie Osborn]
? Williams, David (d. 1794), Welsh hymn writer and tailor. Refs to seek. [W]
Williams, E., working man of Bristol, pub. The city at night, and other poems (London,
1864). Ref: Reilly (2000), 497.
Williams, Edward (‘Iolo Morganwg’) (1746-1826), Glamorgan born stonemason, poet
and antiquarian, an important and controversial figure in Welsh cultural history;
now the subject of a multi-volume publishing project from the University of
Wales Press and the Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies,
Aberystwyth, including a three-volume edition of his Letters, three monographs
and a collection of essays. Williams was born at Pennon, Glamorgan, the eldest
of four sons to Edward, a stonemason, and his wife Ann Matthews, the well-
educated ‘daughter of a gentlemen who had wasted a pretty fortune’. Deprived
of formal schooling due to wretched health, Williams learned to read by
watching his father inscribe letters onto gravestones and through his mother
teaching him songs from The Vocal Miscellany. Williams adopted his father’s
profession, while finding time to explore Welsh verse and develop his poetic
craftsmanship with the aid of local bards such as Lewis Hopkin and Rhys
Morgan. As a wandering stonemason in London and Kent from 1773 to 1777 he
encountered the Society of Gwyneddigion and became an active participant in
the vibrant Welsh sector of the capital. It was during this period that Williams’s
imagination was stirred by the manuscript poems of Dafydd ap Gwilym. After
returning to Glamorgan, Williams married Margaret Roberts in 1781,
‘apostrophising her as Euron in love poems imitating those of Dafydd ap
Gwilym’ (Morgan 2004). The relationship grew trying as Williams moved from
farming in Monmouthshire to building in Llandaff to trading along the Bristol
Channel, attempting to offset the frustrations of such drudgeries by copying
ancient manuscripts and composing fake Welsh medieval poetry. Williams fled
to Wales to evade his debt creditors in England before undergoing a spell in
Cardiff gaol in 1786-7. Of the four children he and his wife bore, two survived.
Williams’s discourse on Welsh metrics, ‘The Secret of the Bards of the Isle of
Britain’ – illustrating that ‘Glamorgan bards had never accepted the classical
rules of Welsh poetry agreed in 1453’ (Morgan 2004) – was a product of his time
in prison. Additionally, he produced poems that were redolent of Dafydd ap
Gwilym’s verse to the point of being included as an appendix in a 1789 edition
of Dafydd’s works and deemed to be Dafydd’s authentic compositions for over
a century. Williams’s conception of Glamorgan bards uniquely perpetuating
primeval druidic tradition was submitted in The Gentleman’s Magazine
(November 1789), and in 1791 he revisited London, declaring that he was the
conduit for all the mysteries of Druidism. He staged the first ceremony – as well
as inventing the rites and rituals – of ‘The Gorsedd of Bards of the Isle of Britain’
at Primrose Hill the following year. As a figure aiming to preserve and revitalise
Welsh heritage and tradition, Williams became known by his bardic name of
Iolo Morganwg, and the ceremony later became one of the chief attractions at
the National Eisteddfod. Williams stayed in London until 1795, supported by a
large circle of friends, including Robert Southey, who granted him a moving
tribute in the epic poem Madoc (1805). He indulged in his Laudanum habit – of
which he wrote: ‘Thou faithful friend in all my grief, / In thy soft arms I find
relief, / In thee forget my woes’ – and the publicising of myths such as America’s
discovery by the twelfth-century Welsh price Madoc, and the existence of a
manuscript at Raglan Castle representing a record of the bardic institution
traced back to the settlement of Britain. He even planned an expedition to
America in search for a tribe of Welsh-speaking Indians, but ultimately left his
young recruit to journey alone. In 1794, Williams produced his first genuine
work, Poems Lyrical and Pastoral, a two-volume set so popular that its subscribers
ostensibly included George Washington and the Prince of Wales. Tim Burke
(2003. p276) suggests that there is considerable ambition in Williams’s attempt
‘to fuse the genres of lyric and pastoral, in order to construct a new sense of the
relationship between the aesthetics of solitude and the ethics of
community’. Reviewing the volume, the British Critic (1794) wrote: ‘Highly
indeed do we disapprove of the violent and intemperate spirit which
distinguishes Mr Williams in his preface, and many of his notes, but we are
nevertheless equally ready to do him justice as a poet, and to confess that a
portion of genius, harmony, and taste marks his compositions’. Despite the
warm reception of Poems, the near-starvation of his family led him back to
masonry in Flemingston and then shopkeeping in Cowbridge. He joined Owen
Jones and William Owen Pughe as editors of The Myvyrian Arcaiology (3 vols.,
1801-7) - the first printed corpus of Welsh medieval literature. After several
years delving into Unitarianism, Williams became a founder of the South Wales
Unitarian Society in 1802, the author of its book of regulations and a
considerable quantity of hymns published a decade later. Williams spent his
later years in his cottage at Flemingston working on his magnum opus, ‘The
History of the British Bards’, hoping to illuminate the entire history of the
Druids to the world, surrounded by manuscripts. He died in 1826 before he
could complete it, and the massive collection of material was donated to the
National Library of Wales in 1916, just prior to Griffith John Williams’s
commencement of his lifetime study of Edward Williams. He concluded that
‘although a pioneering Romantic poet in Welsh, and the most talented writer of
the eighteenth-century Welsh cultural renaissance, he had forged a vast quantity
of Welsh historical material’ (Morgan 2004). Numerous publications. Ref:
OCLW; LC 3, 275-96; ODNB; Radcliffe; Geraint H. Jenkins, Facts, Fantasy and
Fiction: The Historical Vision of Iolo Morganwg, Aberystwyth, 1997; A Rattleskull
Genius: The Many Faces of Iolo Morganwg ed. Geraint H. Jenkins, Cardiff:
University of Wales Press, 2005, 2009; Geraint H. Jenkins, Ffion Mair Jones and
David Ceri Jones, eds., The Correspondence of Iolo Morganwg. Cardiff: University
of Wales Press, 2007, three volumes; Mary-Ann Constantine, The Truth Against
the World: Iolo Morganwg and Romantic Forgery. Cardiff: University of Wales
Press, 2007; Cathryn A. Charnell-White, Bardic Circles: National, Regional and
Personal Identity in the Bardic Vision of Iolo Morganwg. Cardiff: University of Wales
Press, 2007’ Marion Löffler, The Literary and Historical Legacy of Iolo Morganwg
1826-1926. Cardiff: University of Wales Press, 2007;
http://www.llgc.org.uk/index.php?id=historyofthebritishbardsnl. [LC 3] [W] [—
Iain Rowley]
? Williams, Eliseus (Eifion Wyn) (1867-1926), schoolteacher and accountant; born at
Porthmadog, Caerns., received little education outside of Sunday School, but still
became a teacher in Porthmadog and later at Pentrefoelas; in 1896 he began work
as a clerk and accountant for the North Wales Slate Company; some of his
hymns and poems are still popular as recitation pieces. Pub: Telynegion Maes a
Mor (1906), Ieuenctid y Dydd (1894), Y Bugail (c. 1900), Caniadau’r Allt
(posthumous, 1927), O Drum I Draeth (posthumous 1929). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—
Katie Osborn]
Williams, Griffith (‘Gutyn Peris’) (1769-1838), quarryman, born at Waunfawr,
Caerns. but lived most of his life in Llandygái; student of Dafydd Ddu Eryri
(David Thomas, qv); participated in a bardic ceremony organized by Iolo
Morganwg (Edwards Williams, qv) during the Dinorwic Eisteddfod in 1799;
defended the cynghanedd form against Ieuan Glan Geirionydd (Evan Evans, qv)
in Y Gwyliedydd, a Wesleyan newspaper; pub: Ffrwyth Awen (1816). Ref: OCLW.
[W] [—Katie Osborn]
? Williams, Huw Owen (‘Huw Menai’) (1888-1961), variously employed, weigher
and journalist; son of a miner, he was born at Caernarfon, and began work as a
weigher at Merthyr Tydfil, Glamorgan in 1906; political agitator and left-wing
journalist and wrote and read in both English and Welsh; began to write poetry
during WWI; “wrote from time to time about the miner’s life, but his work is in
large measure that of a nature poet in the tradition of Wordsworth” (OCLW);
pub. Four volumes of poetry: Through the Upcast Shaft (192), The Passing of Guto
(1929), Back in the Return (1933), The Simple Vision (1945). Ref: OCLW. [W] [OP]
[—Katie Osborn]
Williams, John (1808-66), of Lecha, west Cornwall, miner, self-taught village
schoolmaster, clerk, pub. Miscellaneous Poems (1859); Poems, by the late John
Williams, Edited by his son, Thomas Williams (London H. Southern & Co., 1873).
Ref: Reilly (2000), 498; Roger Collicott catalogue no. 79, 2007; inf. Bob Heyes.
Williams, John Owen (‘Pedrog’) (1853-1932), gardener and lay preacher; orphan
brought up by his aunt at Llanbedrog, Caerns. where he worked as a gardener;
got a job for a merchant firm and began preaching in Liverpool in 1878; prolific
periodical writer; “won more prizes at eisteddfodau than any other poet before
or since his day” (OCLW, 1986); pub: autobiography Stori ‘Mywyd (1932). Re:
OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
Williams, Owen (‘Owen Gwyrfai’) (1790-1874), cooper, from Waunfawr, Caerns.;
student of Dafydd Ddu Eryri (David Thomas, qv); composed elegies, epitaphs,
copied Welsh poetry, and collected genealogies, as well as worked on composing
a dictionary, called Y Geirlyfr Cymraeg. Pub: Y Drysorfa Hynafiethol (only four
parts published, 1839); selection of poetry called Gemau Môn ac Arfon
(posthumous 1911); memoir by his son, with a selection of poems, called Gemau
Gwyrfai (Thomas Williams, 1904). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
? Williams, Richard (‘Dic Dywyll, Bardd Gwagedd’) (c. 1790-1862?), blind balladeer,
born in either Anglesey or Caernarfornshire; little is known of his life, but he was
“described by his contemporaries as a short, fat man, he used to put his little
finger in the corner of his eye when singing ballads” (OCLW); reputed to be “the
king of all the balladsingers in South Wales”; witnessed Merthyr Rising and
Rebecca Riots; seventy-three of his ballads are preserved in manuscript at the
National Library of Wales. Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
Williams, Richard (‘Gwydderig’) (1842-1917), country poet and miner; born in
Brynaman, Carms, and emigrated to Pennsylvania, USA as a young man, where
he worked in a mine; spent the last years of his life in his native town in Wales; a
great competitor at eisteddfodau, he won more prizes than anyone except Elisius
Williams (qv). Pub: Detholion o Waith Gwydderig (posthumous, ed. J. Lloyd
Thomas, 1959). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
Williams, Robert (‘Robert ap Gwilym Ddu’) (1766-1850), farmer and hymn-writer,
from Llanystumdwy, Caerns.; bardic tutor of Dewi Wyn o Eifion (David Owen,
qv); influenced by Goronwy Owen (qv); ignored contemporary trends in poetry,
especially the popularity of the mock epic, and wrote about “the everyday
events of his neighborhood” (OCLW); his most famous hymn, ‘Mae’r gwaed a
redodd ar y Groes’, was first published in 1824 in the periodical Seren Gomer. Pub:
Gardd Eifion (1841); twenty hymns can be found in Aleluia neu Ganiadau
Cristionogol (collected by J. R. Jones, 1822). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
Williams, Robert (‘Trebor Mai’, reads “I am Robert” backwards) (1830-77), tailor, of
Llanrwst, Denbighsire; tutored by Caledfryn (William Williams, qv); pub: Fy
Noswyl (1861), Y Geninen (1860), Gwaith Barddonol Prif Englyniwr Cymru (ed. Isaac
Foulkes, posthumous, 1883). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
? Williams, Taliesin (‘Taliesin ab Iolo’) (1787-1847), stonemason, schoolmaster and
poet; son of Iolo Morganwg (Edward Williams, qv) and said to have been born in
Cardiff Gaol while his father served a bankruptcy sentence; named after a
famous poet of the late sixth century; worked as a stonemason and kept various
schools, serving the longest at Merthyr Tydfil, where he died; assisted his father
in preparing Cyfrinach Beirdd Ynys Prydain (1829) and believed all of his father’s
fabrications; won Chair at the Cardiff Eisteddfod (1834) and a prize at the
Abergavenny Eisteddfod (1838). Published two poems of his own, Cardiff Castle
(1827) and The Doom of Colyn Dolphyn (1837). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
Williams, Thomas (‘Eos Gwynfa’, ‘Eos y Mynydd’) (c. 1769-1848), weaver; native of
Montgomeryshire; pub: Telyn Dafydd (1820); Ychydig o Ganiadau Buddiol (1824);
Newyddion Gabriel (1825); Manna’r Anialwch (1831); Mer Awen (1844). Ref: OCLW.
[W] [—Katie Osborn]
Williams, Thomas (‘Brynfab’) (1848-1927), farmer, lived in Eglwys Ilan, Glamorgan,
“on the hillside above Pontypridd” (OCLW), well-known literary figure and
member of Clic y Bont, a circle of Pontypridd poets and musicians; a prolific
periodical contributor, his verse remains uncollected; pub: a novel, Pan oedd
Rhondda’n bur (1912). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
Williams, Watkin Hezekiah (‘Watcyn Wyn’) (1844-1905), miner and teacher; born in
Brynaman, Carms.; worked underground from age eight to thirty years old; in
1874 joined the Presbyterian ministry and served as principal at a Nonconformist
school; pub: Caneuon (1871); Hwyr Ddifyrion (1883); Cân a Thelyn (1895); a
translation into Welsh of Sankey and Moody, Odlau’r Efengyl (1883); and two
novels. Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
Williams, William (1801-69), known by bardic name 'Caledfryn', son of a Welsh
weaver, worked for his father for eight years before becoming a teacher and
finally a Congregational minister; participated in the Cymreigyddion Society,
won national reputation at the Beaumaris eisteddfod (1832), and was thereafter
much in demand at local eisteddfod, winning a silver in 1850 at the Rhuddlan
eisteddfod. Pub. A guide to reading and writing in Welsh, Cyfarwyddiadau i
ddarllen ac ysgrifennu Cymraeg (1822); and poetry: Grawn awen (1826); Caniadau
Caledfryn (1856). His autobiography, Cofiant Caledfryn (1877, ed. by Thomas
Roberts), includes previously unpublished verse. Ref: OCLW; ODNB/DNB. [W]
? Williams, William (‘Gwilym Cyfeiliog’) (1801-76), kept a wool shop at
Llanbrynmair, Montgomeryshire; wrote strict-meter verse, englynion, and
hymns; pub: Caniadau Cyfeiliog (posthumous, 1878). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie
Osborn]
Williams, William ('Creuddynfab') (1814-69), farm-labourer and railwayman;
stonemason's son, received little formal schooling; born at Creuddyn,
Llandudno, Caerns. and began farm work there; worked on a railway in the
Pennines from 1845-1862, and became friends with John Ceiriog Hughes (qv);
served as first secretary of the National Eisteddfod Association; as a critic, he
censured the Neoclassicism of poets like Caledfryn (William Williams, qv) and
encouraged younger poets to write in free meter; pub: Y Barddoniadur Cymmreig
(1855). Ref: OCLW. [W] [—Katie Osborn]
Williamson, Daniel (b. 1843), of Clyth, Caithness, ‘the blind poet’ of Inverness and
Perthshire, carpenter’s son, worker in many trades, pubs. include a pamphlet,
On beholding the Moon for the last Time, which ran to a second edition, and
Musings in the Dark. Ref: Edwards, 15, 53-60. [S]
Williamson, Effie (1815-82), of Selkirk, later a Galashiels weaver, daughter of another
poet, ‘Mrs Williamson’ (qv); pub. The tangled web: poems and hymns (Edinburgh
and Galashiels, 1883); Peaceable Fruits by Effie (Edinburgh, 1885). The author of
the volumes may not be the same Effie Williamson as the factory worker whose
poems are featured in Edwards. The latter was a native of Galashiels, ‘poetess of
Gala Water,’ who lived for a few years in Ireland. She received little education,
but was ‘fated to attend the loom, and keep the shuttles busy flying.’ She
published in Chambers’s Journal, and wrote sentimental poems on the
countryside, the pains of winter, and her weaving; whereas the two volumes are
almost exclusively religious. Ref: LC 6, 319-24; Edwards, 2, 304-8 and 8, 192-5;
Reilly (1994), 515; inf. Florence Boos. Link: wcwp [F] [I] [S] [LC 6]
Williamson, George Joseph (b. 1816), of Rochester, Kent, fisherman’s son, charity
school, errand boy, fisherman, Wesleyan Sunday school teacher, pub. The ship’s
career, and other poems (London, 1860, seven edns to 1874). Ref: Reilly (2000), 499.
Williamson, Mrs (1815-82), of Selkirk, mother of Effie Williamson (qv), daughter of a
ploughman, Robert Milne (qv?) (an exceptional man who wrote for the Kelso
Chronicle), in service until marriage, wrote prize-winning essays and poems for
local papers and anthologies. Ref: Edwards, 8, 192-5. [F] [S]
Willis, Matthew, farm labourer, pub. The Mountain Minstrel; Or, Effusions of
Retirement. Poems (York, 1834). Ref: Johnson, item 972.
Wills, Ruth (1826-1908), of Leicester, daughter of a soldier, educated at a dame
school, her father died when she was seven, she worked in warehouses from
eight, pub. Lays of Lowly Life (London, 1861, 2nd edn 1862) Lays of Lowly Life
Second Series (London, 1868), both in Bodleian. Ref: ABC, 577-80; Reilly (2000),
500; Boos (2008), 219-37. Link: wcwp [F]
Wilson, Alexander (1766-1813), of Paisley, author of Lochwinnoch, weaver, pedlar and
packman, later eminent American ornithologist, pub. Poems (Paisley 1790),
Poems: Humorous, Satirical, and Serious (1791), The Shark or Land Mills Detected
[political satire] (1793), Poems chiefly in the Scottish dialect (London, 1816),
American Ornithology (from 1808). Ref: LC 3, 179-92; ODNB; Radcliffe; Harp R,
xxvii-xxxii; Wilson, I, 418-27; Johnson, items 974-6; Brown, I, 43-58; Leonard, 8-32
& 373; LION. [LC 3] [S]
Wilson, Alexander (1804-46), of the Manchester ‘Sun Inn’ poets group, youngest of
Michael Wilson’s seven sons, author of dialect poems and ‘The Poet’s Corner’
(The Festive Wreath, 1843), and famed for ‘Johnny Green’. Ref: Maidment (1987),
163-6, Ref: Vicinus (1969), 35-6, Vicinus (1973), 746, Vicinus (1974), 160,
Hollingworth, 156, LION.
? Wilson, Alexander Stephen, of Rayne, Aberdeenshire, son of tenant farmer, land
surveyor, engineering, assisted Charles Darwin, wrote on physics, pub. A creed of
to-morrow (London, 1872); Songs and poems (Edinburgh, 1884); The lyric of A
hopeless love (London, 1888). Ref: Reilly (2000), 501; Reilly (1994), 517. [S]
Wilson, Anne, author of Teisa: A Descriptive Poem of the River Teese, Its Towns and
Antiquities. By Anne Wilson (Newcastle upon Tyne: Printed for the Author, 1778),
describes herself as poor and living in rented accommodation. Ref: LC 2, 363-74;
Lonsdale (1989), 354-5; Jackson, 377; Keegan (2008), 98-121. [F] [LC 2]
Wilson, Arthur (b. 1864), of Dalry, Ayrshire, weaver from age 10, miner at 15; pub a
‘neat little volume of poems’ (Kilmarnock: James McKie, 1884). Ref: Edwards, 7,
182-5. [S]
Wilson, Daniel (1801-81), of Pineberry Hill, Halifax, self-taught, preacher, bookseller,
pub. Justice and mercy: a sacred poem (Halifax, 1883), Ref: Reilly (1994), 517.
Wilson, Gavin (fl. 1788), shoemaker poet, pub. A Collection of Masonic Songs and
entertaining anecdotes, for the use of all lodges (Edinburgh, 1788), Advertisement of
thanks, in verse (Edinburgh, 1780?, 1789, 1790). Ref: LC 3, 133-4; Winks, 313. [LC
3] [S]
Wilson, Hugh C. (b. ?1845), ‘Cowper Spearpoint’, of Cumnock, Ayrshire, herdsman,
woodman, bailiff in Beckenham, Kent, pub. The rustic harp: a collection of poems,
songs, etc., English and Scotch (Bournemouth, 1874); Wild sprays from the garden
(1879). Ref: Edwards 1, 70-2; Reilly (2000), 501, Murdoch, 406-8. [S]
Wilson, [Joseph] 'Joe' (1841-72), of Newcastle upon Tyne, son of a cabinet maker and
a bonnet-maker, apprentice printer, publisher, very popular entertainer,
publican; a ‘traditional working class songwriter’ and performer of 'drolleries', a
form of stand-up comedy. He sang in dialect to great effect. Examples of his song
titles: Keep Yor Feet Still Geordie Hinney (George, please keep still in bed); Dinnet
Clash the Door (young persons, shut the door quietly); Maw Bonnie Gyetside Lass (I
appear to have trodden on your dress); and Aw Wish Your Muther Wad Come (the
consequences of men holding babies). There have been numerous revivals of his
work; for example, a Tyneside Theatre production by Alex Glasgow and John
Woodvine took up the singer's life and works in Joe Lives (1971). Ref: ODNB; LC
6, 145-74; Allan, 473-82; Vicinus (1974), 144. [LC 6]
? Wilson, John (b. 1731-1818), of Paisley, ‘bar-officer in the Sheriff Court’, but also
worked in a weaving factory and ‘was the first man in Paisley who wrought a
silk web’. Ref: Brown, I, 27-29. [S]
Wilson, John, of Longtown (b. 1835), joiner, businessman, temperance writer, pub.
Selections of Thought from the Leisure Hours of a Working Man (1874), Saved by Song:
or How John Strong became a Teetotaler (1882). Ref: Edwards, 5, 377-82. [S]
Wilson, Michael (1763-1840), son of a handloom weaver, printer and furniturebroker, radical, dialect poet (as were his sons Thomas and Alexander), J. Harland
(ed), The Songs of the Wilsons (1865, 1866). Ref: Hollingworth, 156.
Wilson, Thomas (1773-1858), of Gateshead, poet, son of a miner, sent down the pit at
eight as a trapper boy, later a merchant, schoolmaster and alderman, wrote The
Pitman’s Pay in miner’s patois, first pub. in Mitchell’s ‘Newcastle Magazine’ in
1826, 1828, and 1830, reprinted by G. Watson of Gateshead, ‘but this incorrect
edition was soon out of print’. Other poems were pub. in the Tyne Mercury, some
reissued with notes by John Sykes, compiler of ‘Local Records.’ A collective
edition of Wilson’s works, The Pitman’s Pay and Other Poems was pub. in 1843,
reprinted 1872, with some additional poems and notes by the author, with a
portrait and memoir. Ref: LC 4, 257-74; ODNB/DNB; Allan, 43, 258-77; Welford,
III, 650-3; Klaus (1985), 72-4. [LC 4]
? Wilson, Thomas, of Leeds, Chartist, poet. Ref: Kovalev, 110; Scheckner, 322, 345.
Wilson, Thomas (d. 1852), of Newcastle upon Tyne, dealer in smallware, son of
Michael Wilson (qv), for most of his life worked as partner in a counting-house
in Newcastle, dialect poet. Pub. popular poem The Pitman's Pay in Newcastle
Magazine (1826, 1828, 1830), later republished as The Pitman's Pay and Other
Poems (1843, 1873; the 2nd edn contains additional poems, memoir and notes by
the author). Ref: ODNB; Hollingworth, 156.
Wilson, William (1801-60), of Creiff, known by pseudonyms 'Alpin' and 'Allan
Grant', cowherd, cloth-lapper, coal-seller, journalist, bookseller and publisher,
moved to Glasgow then emigrated to the USA (1833), died at Poughkeepsie,
posthumously pub. Poems (1870, 3rd enlarged edn, 1881), devised ‘Poets and
Poetry of Scotland’, pub. by his son James Grant Wilson, in 1877. Ref: ODNB;
Ross, 77-83; Edwards, 4, 29-31 and 13, 223-31. [S]
Wilson, William (1817-50), weaver, of Paisley, pub. 12-page collection, Poetical Pieces
Composed by a Young Author (Paisley, 1842). Ref: Brown, II, 66-71; Leonard, 118.
[S]
Wilson, William (b. 1830), of Burntisland, blacksmith and watchmaker, pub. Echoes of
the Anvil: Songs and Poems (Edinburgh, 1866, 1885). Ref: Reilly (1994), 519;
Edwards, 8, 69-76. [S]
Wingate, David (1828-92), of Cowglen, Renfrewshire, miner from the age of nine,
later colliery manager, pub. Annie Weir and Other Poems (Edinburgh, 1866), Poems
and Songs, 2nd edn (London and Edinburgh, 1863; Glasgow, 1883), Lily Neil: a
poem (Edinburgh, 1879). Ref: LC 6, 55-64; Glasgow Poets, 364-68; Wilson, II, 45965, Ashraf (1975), 242-3, Klaus (1985), 74-5, 76, Leonard, 241-60, Reilly (2000),
503-4, Reilly (1994), 519-20, Edwards, 2, 283-9 and 13, 84; see also John Macleay
Peacock, ‘To David Wingate, the Collier Poet’, in his Poems (1880), 101-3. [S] [LC
6]
Wingfield, Alexander H. (b. 1828), of Blantyre, Lanarkshire, sent to work in a cotton
factory in Glasgow at age 9, emigrated to America in 1847, to Auburn, NY, later
to Hamilton, Ontario, working as a mechanic on the Great Western Railway for
18 years, then for the Canadian Customs Department. Ref: Ross, 136-43. [S]
Withers, James Reynolds (1812-98), ‘The Cambridgeshire Poet’, of Weston Colville,
Cambridgeshire, shoemaker poet, pub. Poems upon various subjects, 3 vols
(Cambridge, 1856-61), Rustic song and wayside musings, 4th edn (London, 1867),
Poems (London, 1869). Ref: Maidment (1987), 314-16l Reilly (2000), 504-5.
Withy, Nathan[iel], ‘The Wandering Bard’, of Wolverhampton, self-taught protegé of
Lord Lyttelton, who gave him a cottage on the Hagley estate; he made
mathematical rhymes and sold his versified multiplication tables door-to-door,
author of Miscellaneous Poems (4th edn, Wolverhampton, 1777, Dobell 2101, BL
11632.aa.52); An Admonition to the Watermen (Worcester, 1786?, BL 11622.c.22(2));
A History of England (Wolverhampton, 1785, BL 16098/4724). Ref: Dobell; Poole &
Markland, 97-9; Hepburn, II, 484, 555n.
? Wood, Benjamin, Lancashire dialect writer, pub. “Sparks for a smithy”: Lancashire
recitations, suitable for public readings or social gatherings (Bury and Manchester,
1879). Ref: Reilly (2000), 505.
? Wood, John Athol, Chartist poet. Ref: Kovalev, 133-4, Scheckner, 322-4. 345.
? Wood, John Wilson (1834-85), of Cupar, Fyfe, baker’s son, apprentice baker,
studied law, lived in America, returned as grocer and spirit merchant, town
councillor, pub. The serpent round the soul: a poem (Edinburgh and Cupar, 1870);
The gipsy heir, and other poems (Cupar-Fife, 1883); Ceres races. Ref: Reilly (2000),
506; Reilly (1994), 522; Edwards 9, xxiii. [S]
Wood, Robert (b. 1850), of Newmilns, Ayrshire, handloom weaver, poems in
Murdoch. (Edwards includes a Robert Wood of Newmills, Ayrshire as being of a
retiring disposition and being employed in a large Glasgow warehouse,
probably the same man.) Ref: ?Edwards, I, 381; Murdoch, 422-3. [S]
Wood, William, weaver, of Eyam, Derbyshire, pub. The Genius of the Peak and other
Poems (London and Sheffield, 1837). Ref: Johnson, item 990.
Woodhouse, James (1735-1820), of Rowley Regis, Staffordshire, shoemaker poet.
Woodhouse, born in Rowley, near Birmingham, was a village shoemaker, and
although he had been removed from school at seven years old, supplemented
his meagre income by teaching literacy. He described balancing his cobbling
work on one knee and a book on the other, switching between the pen and the
awl throughout his daily routine. Woodhouse’s earliest poems represented
petitions to William Shenstone, who had prohibited ‘the rabble’ from visiting his
ornamental gardens, The Leasowes, due to their propensity for picking flowers rather than admiring the scenery with a detached comportment. Keegan (2002)
suggests that Woodhouse’s affirmations to Shenstone respond to the conviction
that the role of the lower orders in tilling the earth and concentrating on the
produce it might yield precluded an ability to appreciate nature’s beauties.
However, in constructing himself as an exception to the rule, Woodhouse
paradoxically buttresses social distinctions even as he tries to transcend them.
“An Elegy to William Shenstone, Esq; Of the Lessowes” (1764) contains the
following ingratiating lines: “Once thy propitious gates no fears betray'd, / But
bid all welcome to the sacred shade; /'Till Belial's sons (of gratitude the bane) /
With curs'd riot dar'd thy groves profane: / And now their fatal mischiefs I
deplore, / Condemn'd to dwell in Paradise no more!”. Nonetheless, the overall
vision is one that “ranks the peasant equal with the peer” through an inherent
affinity for recreation in nature. Shenstone permitted Woodhouse entry not just
to the grounds, but also to the library, which extended his knowledge beyond
what he had gleaned from magazines. Five years following the introduction to
his benefactor, Woodhouse’s collection of poems was published, in quarto,
priced three shillings. Southey (1831. p117) notes: “It appears from a piece
addressed to Shenstone, upon his ‘Rural Elegance’, that books to which his
patron had directed his attention, had induced him to write in a more ambitious
strain, and aim at some of the artifices of versification”; Woodhouse speaks of
“He who form’d the fount of light, / And shining orbs that ornament the night; /
Who hangs his silken curtains round the sky; / And trims their skirts with fringe
of every dye”. However, it should be noted that these lines are extracted from a
volume published nearly forty years after the original edition, quite possibly
signaling a process of modification to bring them in line with fashion; indeed,
with regard to the development of both Woodhouse and Duck’s poetry, Southey
(1831. p118) opines that the freshness and truth of their language becomes
compromised when they start to “form their style upon some approved model…
they then produce just such verses as any person, with a metrical ear, may be
taught to make by receipt”. Owing to the patronage of Shenstone and public
curiosity concerning a shoemaker Dr. Johnson felt prompted to meet
Woodhouse in 1764. Boswell indicates that Johnson viewed Woodhouse’s
celebrity status with derision, proclaiming: “Such objects were, to those who
patronised them, mere mirrors of their own superiority. They had better…
furnish the man with good implements for his trade than raise a subscription for
his poems” (cited Southey 1831. p192). However, in the biography prefixed to
the collected edition of Woodhouse’s works, Johnson is said to have altered his
verdict in light of the poet’s subsequent accomplishments. Shortly following his
rise to prominence, Woodhouse left the shoemaking trade to become a carrier,
and then a bailiff on Edward Montague’s estate - where he was dismissed for
having contrary political and religious attitudes. As Keegan (2002) points out,
his falling out with Elizabeth Montagu – who, after Shenstone died, engendered
his shift from “royal patronage of ‘natural genius’ through the agency of
Thomas Spence, to the moralizing charity of being made a “bluestocking”
cause” – prefigured her more well-known involvement in the dispute between
Hannah More and Ann Yearsley. In 1788, Woodhouse prefixed an ‘Address to
the Public’ to a volume of poems, lamenting that he had been ‘growing grey in
servitude, and poorer under patronage’, struggling to support his ailing wife
and their 27 children. A twenty-eight-thousand line autobiographical poem The
Life and Lucubrations of Crispinus Scriblerus was published in 1795. It includes an
ambivalent delineation of Birmingham and Wolverhampton. The images of
Birmingham’s “multiplying streets and villas bright… And Wolverhampton’s
turrets… Near northern boundaries tipt with burnish’d gold; / fields, countless
cotts and villages, between,” that “give life, and lustre to the social Scene”, give
way to the violent menace of human industrial activity: “Deep, sullen, sounds
thro’ all the regions roll, / Shocking with groans, and sighs, each shuddering
Soul! / Here clanking engines vomit scalding streams… Obtruding on the heart,
each heaving breath, / Some vengeful Fiend, grim delegate of Death!”
Woodhouse also published a collection of nine epistles entitled Love Letters to My
Wife (1803), which are in actuality discourses on social and religious matters,
featuring attacks on upper-class tyranny. Overton (2006) writes: “Like his
versification – quite elaborate iambic pentameter couplets, varied by occasional
alexandrines – the form is highly artificial, but it provided an acceptable cover
for views that might, if expressed more directly, have provoked censure.”
Woodhouse spent the last 35 years of his life as the proprietor of a book and
stationery shop in Oxford Street. In the way of curiosity and anecdote, it is
claimed that Woodhouse was six feet six inches tall and possessed of
tremendous strength. Apparently, he once confronted a ferocious bull with a
stick and made it “lay down and fairly cry for mercy” (Southey 1831. p193). Pub.
Poems on Sundry Occasions (1764), Poems on Several Occasions (1766), Poems on
Several Occasions (1788), Love Letters to my Wife; written in 1789; Norbury Park, A
Poem; With Several Others, Written on Various Occasions (1803), The Life and
Lucubrations of Crispinus Scriblerus...A novel in verse. Part I (1804), The Life and
Poetical Works of James Woodhouse, 2 vols. (1896). Ref: LC 2, 141-234; ODNB;
Southey, 114-21, 192-4; Poole & Marklan, 81-5; Unwin, 71, 74-6; Tinker, 97-9;
Winks, 296-7; Klaus (1985); 6-21, Cafarelli, 78-9, 81; Rizzo, 243, 254-8; Harvey;
Richardson, 257; Goodridge (1999), item 131; Christmas, 17, 183-210, 215; Keegan
(2008), 37-64; Overton, B (2006) ‘The Verse Epistle’. In. Gerrard (ed) A Companion
to Eighteenth-Century Poetry. [LC 2] [—Iain Rowley]
Woodley, George (bap. 1786-1846), born in Dartmouth, began writing at age eleven
while on board a British man-of war, described as ‘a seaman who became a hackwriter, produced half a dozen volumes of verse, and was eventually induced, in
1820, to take Holy Orders and go to Scilly isles as a missionary’ (Harvey); pub.
Mount-Edgcumbe, a descriptive poem; the shipwreck, a naval eclogue; and miscellaneous
verses on several occasions. With notes [Mt. Edgcumbe, with The Shipwreck, and
Miscellaneous Verses] (1804, published anonymously); The Churchyard and other
Poems (1808); Britain's bulwarks; or, The British seaman: a poem (1811); Portugal
delivered, a poem (1812); Redemption (1816); The divinity of Christ proved, from his
love to mankind ... and the true Church of Christ ascertained (1819, 2nd edn 1821);
Cornubia: a poem (1819), A view of the present state of the Scilly islands (1822). Ref:
ODNB; Harvey.
Woodrow, William (b. 1817), of Paisley, pub. poems in periodicals, 1878 collection.
Ref: Brown, II, 77-82. [S]
Work, Thomas Lawrence (b. 1838), of Aberdeen, printer, emigrated to Australia. Ref:
Edwards, 12, 211-19. [S]
Wrigglesworth, John (1856-1903), 'Hubert Cloudesly'. of Castleford, coal miner, pub.
Grass from a Yorkshire village (Westminster, 1897). Also published several works
under the pseudonym, Hubert Cloudesly, including a collection of essays
entitled Passing Thoughts of Working Man by Hubert Cloudesley, Author of
Sketches from Real Life, etc. (London: Elliot Stock, 1890); a novel, Adventures of
the Remarkable Twain. By Hubert Cloudesley, Author of “Passing Thoughts,”“The
Sweetest Maid in Glowton,'“Grass From A Yorkshire Village,” etc. (London:
Digby, Long & Co, 1899); and a short story collection Idylls of Yorkshire. By
Hubert Cloudesley, Author of “Passing Thoughts”, “The Sweetest Maid in
Glowton,” “Grass from a Yorkshire Village”, “Adventures of the Remarkable
Twain. etc.' (Eland: Henry Watson Lt, n.d. ? 1900). Ref: Reilly (1994), 526.
Wright, Joseph (b. 1848), of Airdrie, hairdresser’s son, umbrella manufacturer, friend
of Janet Hamilton (qv) from childhood, read to her after she became blind. Ref:
Edwards, 4, 274-80; Knox, 253-8 (gives birth as 1847). [S]
Wright, John (1805-c. 1846), ‘The Galston Poet’, born in Sorn, Ayshire, Ayrshire
weaver, pub. The Retrospect or youthful scenes. With other Poems and Songs
(Edinburgh, 1st edn 1830, 2nd edn 1833; begun in 1824 and inspired by an episode
of unrequited love), The whole poetical work of John Wright (Ayr, 1843). Ref:
ODNB/DNB; Edwards, 3, 121-30; Southey, xv; Wilson, II, 541-2. [S]
Wright, Orlando, mechanic, of Birmingham and York, pub. A Wreath of leisure hours:
poems, including an elegy on the Hartley Colliery catastrophe (Birmingham, 1862),
Clifton Green: a poem, etc. (London, York and Scarbro, 1868), Maxims and epigrams
(London, 1876). Ref: Reilly (2000), 510.
Wright, William (‘Bill o’ th’ Hoylus End’) (b. 1836), of Haworth, Yorkshire,
musician’s son, warp-dresser, strolling player, soldier, wrote ‘The Factory Girl’,
pub. in his Poems (Keighley, rev. edn., 1891), also pub. Random rhymes and
rambles, by Bill o’ th’ Hoylus End (Keighley, 1876). Ref: Maidment (1987), 272-4;
Reilly (1994), 47 & 527; Reilly (2000), 510.
? Wrigley, Ammon (1862-1946), of Saddleworth, millworker, dialect poet, pub.
Saddleworth: Its Prehistoric Remains (Oldham D E Clegg 1911); Songs of a Moorland
Parish with Prose Sketches. A Collection of Verse and Prose, Chiefly Relating to the
Parish of Saddleworth (Saddleworth: Moore and Edwards, 1912), and other works,
all apparently post-1900. Ref: Hollingworth, 156.
Wynd, James (1832-65), of Dundee, painter, poem in Blackie’s book of Scottish song,
died in Newcastle upon Tyne. Ref: Edwards, 1, 381-2. [S]
Yates, Henry, of Blackburn, handloom weaver, son of a railwayman, living first at
Summit then at Blackburn, dialect and local poet, pub. Songs of the Twilight and
the Dawn. Ref: Hull, 221-37; inf. Bob Heyes.
? Yates, James (fl. 1578-1582), ‘serving man’, patronised and employed by Henry and
Elizabeth Reynolds, pub. The Castell of Courtesie[, whereunto is adjoyned The holde
of humilitie: with The chariot of chastity thereunto annexed] (London, 1582; 'entered
on the Stationers' register on 7 June 1582. Three copies are known to survive'
[ODNB]). Ref: ODNB; Cranbrook, 247. [OP]
Yearsley, Ann Cromartie (1752-1806). Born in Clifton, a village in Gloucestershire.
Known also as ‘Lactilla’ or ‘the Poetical Milkwoman of Bristol’, Yearsley
followed her mother’s calling as a milk woman, and learnt to read and write
under the guidance of her brother William Cromartie. In 1774, she married John
Yearsley, a poor yeoman farmer, and devoted the subsequent ten years to
developing her writing while fulfilling her onerous duties as a farmer’ wife and
mother of six children. After battling destitution in the winter of 1783-84—her
family salvaged from veritable starvation—Yearsley came to the attention of the
affluent Hannah More and other members of the ’Bluestocking’ circle, who
enabled Poems on Several Occasions to be published by subscription. A public
wrangle over control and income bore a permanent rift in Yearsley’s relationship
with her patron. Hereafter, Yearsley would produce her subsequent works
independently. In the 1790s social upheavals in France exacerbated a silencing of
the underclass in many quarters, and Yearsley’s main income in her later years
came from a circulating library she opened in Bristol in 1793. She died in
obscurity in Melksham, Wilts, and it was not until the final quarter of the 20th
century that Ann Yearsley began to emerge from the shadows of literary history.
Yearsley tackled various forms but demonstrated a particular proclivity for
occasional, commemorative and meditative lyric poetry, abounding with
personifications and figures of eighteenth-century verse, including classical
allusion. Her work covers a wide range of concerns. The melancholy that
accompanies Yearsley’s preoccupation with death is mitigated by her veneration
of friendship (the ‘social angel’) and her celebration of motherhood (‘A mother
only can define her joy’). In A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave-Trade, she
exposes the false sensibility that the slave trade is grounded in, attacking the
‘crafty merchants’ defiling Bristol. Pub: Poems on Several Occasions, (London:
Thomas Cadell, 1785), Poems on Various Subjects (1787), facsimile edition (Oxford
and New York: Woodstock Books, 1994), A Poem on the Inhumanity of the Slave
Trade (London: G.G.J. and J. Robinson, 1788 [Full Text On-line] <
http://www.brycchancarey.com/slavery/yearsley1.htm>), The Rural Lyre: A
Volume of Poems, 1796, reprinted in The Romantics: Women Poets, 12 vols, (London:
Routledge, 1996). Yearsley also wrote a novel, The Royal Captives: A Fragment of
Secret History (4 vols 1795), and a play, Earl Goodwin (pub. 1791). Ref: LC 3, 57102; ODNB/DNB; Radcliffe; Burke in Woodman 1998, 215-30, Burke in Hughes,
Mason & Smith 2002, 12-28, Tim Burke (ed), Ann Yearsley: Selected Poems (Cyder
Press, 2003); Cafarelli, 79-81, Christmas 2001, 18-19, 23, 235-66, Cole & Swartz in
Favret & Watson 1994, pp.143-69, Demers in Huntington Library Quarterly 56
(1993), 135-50, Doody 1985, Dorn in Battigelli & Cope 2000, pp.163-89, Falter
2002, Felsenstein in Tulsa Studies in Women’s Literature 21 (2002), Ferguson in The
Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation 27 (1986), 247-68, Ferguson in Tulsa
Studies in Women’s Literature 12 (1993), pp.13-46, Ferguson 1995, Caroline
Franklin, Introduction to The Death of Amnon. A Poem by Elizabeth Hands [and] The
Rural Lyre, A Volume of Poems by Ann Yearsley (London: Routledge, 1996); Griffin
2002, Heinzelman in Favret & Watson 1994, 101-24, Kahn in The Bucknell Review
42 (1988), pp.59-74, Klaus 1985, 6-10, 15-17, 20-1, Landry 1990, Lonsdale (1989),
392-401, Mahl & Koon 1977, McGann 1996, Milne (1999), 139-73, Newey in
Burroughs 2000, pp.79-101, Pearson 1999, Pearson in Scragg and Weinberg 2000,
122-37, Richardson, 252-4, Richardson in Kitson and Fulford 1998, pp.129-47,
Rizzo in Studies in Eighteenth-Century Culture 20 (1991), 241-66, Roberts, 1834,
Rowton, 184-6, Sales in Pirie 1994, Scheuermann, 2002, Shiach, 45, 56-9, Silvester,
1934, Southey (1831), 125-34, 195-8, Tinker, 99-104, 6-10, 15-17, 20-1, Tompkins
1938, Unwin 1954, 68, 77-81, Waldron 1990, Waldron 1996, Zionkowski in
Eighteenth-Century Life 13 (1989), 91-108; Keegan (2008), 77-80; Backscheider, 412;
Backscheider & Ingrassia, 891-2; Bakser, 373-7. [F] [LC 3] [—Iain Rowley]
Yeats, William (fl. 1792), of Airdrie, flesher, born on a farm, pub. ‘Airdrie Fair’, pub
in 1792 and reprinted in Knox. Ref: Knox, 306-10. [S]
Yewdall, John (1795-1856), ‘the Hunslet Toll-Keeper’, born in Quarries, Leeds,
'received only three weeks' formal education' (ODNB). Pub. The Toll-Bar and
Other Poems (Leeds, 1827), written in the style of Byron's Don Juan, includes
autobiographical account. Ref: ODNB; Johnson, item 999; Johnson 46, no. 340.
Yool, James (1792-1860), of Paisley, weaver, active in founding Paisley Literary and
Convivial Association, helped to publish ‘The Caledonian Lyre’ a magazine, in
1815, contributed to Harp R and later edited Paisley Literary Miscellany to which
he contributed, pub. The Rise & Progress of Oppression, or the Weavers’ Struggle for
their Prices, A Tale (Paisley, 1813), The Poems and Songs and Literary Recreations of
James Yool, Collected and Collated for the Paisley Burns Club by William Stewart
(Glasgow, 1883), his works were collected posthumously in manuscript. Ref:
Brown, I, 257-64; Leonard, 63-73. [S]
? Young, D. (b. 1852), of Carmyllie, reporter, farmer, a collection in prospect in 1880.
Ref: Edwards, 1, 99-100. [S]
Young, David (1811-1891), of Kirkcaldy, ‘The Solitary Bard’, mechanic and
millwright in a linen factory, journalist and poet, pub. in newspapers. Ref:
Edwards, 15, 282-4. [S]
Young, John (1825-91), of Milton of Campsie, Stirlingshire, moved to Glasgow,
boilermaker, carter, disabled in an accident, 1853, lived in the poorhouse for six
years, almost blind in later years; pub. Lays from the poorhouse: being a collection of
temperance and miscellaneous pieces, chiefly Scottish (Glasgow, 1860 [but Murdoch
gives 1859]). Lays from the ingle nook: a collection of tales, sketches, &c. (Glasgow,
1863), Homely pictures in verse, chiefly of a domestic nature (Glasgow, 1865), Poems
and lyrics, chiefly in the Scottish dialect (Glasgow, 1868), Lochlomond side, and other
poems (Glasgow, 1872), Pictures in prose and verse: or, personal recollections of the late
Janet Hamilton, Langloan: together with several hitherto unpublished poetic pieces
(Glasgow, 1877), Selections from my first volume, Lays from the poorhouse: (published
November 1860), with an appendix containing some hitherto unpublished poems
(Glasgow, 1881). Ref: Edwards, 1, 276-81 and 16, [lix]; Glasgow Poets, 358-60;
Reilly (2000), 514; Reilly (1994), 531, Murdoch, 184-8. [S]
Young, John (b. 1827), of Paisley, drawboy and weaver, pub. poems in newspapers; a
proposal to publish vol. is on record. Ref: Brown, II, 244-47. [S]
Young, Robert (b. 1800), of Fintona, County Tyroe, nailer, granted a Civil List
pension of £40 in 1866; pub. The Poetical Works of Robert Young of Londonderry:
comprising historical, agricultural, and miscellaneous poems and songs, with copious
notes (Londonderry, Derby and Dublin, 1863). Ref: Reilly (2000), 515. [I]
Young, Robert, of Bothwell, Lanarkshire, working man; pub. Love at the Plough, and
other poems (Biggar, ?1888). Ref: Reilly (1994), 531. [S]
Younger, John (1785-1860), born at Ancrum, Roxburghshire, shoemaker,
accomplished angler known as the 'Tweedside Gnostic'; pub. Thoughts as They
Rise (1834), River Angling for salmon and trout, more particularly as practised in the
Tweed and its tributaries with a treatise on salmon (1840), The Scotch Corn Law Rhyme
(1841), The Light of the Week (1849), Autobiography of John Younger, Shoemaker, of St.
Boswell’s (Kelso, 1881). Ref: ODNB; LC 5, 75-82; Winks, 319-21. [S] [LC 5]
Yule, John T (b. 1848), of Milnathort, Kinrossshire, shoemaker, letter-carrier, pub.
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